


Baldwin's Last Stand

by LadyKnowledge



Series: Baldwin's Last Stand [1]
Category: All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness
Genre: Creature Sciences, F/M, Family Dynamics, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Multi, Other, Vampire Turning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:00:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 64,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29841894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKnowledge/pseuds/LadyKnowledge
Summary: Mostly focused on Baldwin and Eloise (OC) but with quite a lot of other relationships from the books.The story is set about a year after Time's Convert and combines elements from both the show and the books.
Relationships: Baldwin de Clermont/Original Female Character(s), Diana Bishop/Matthew Clairmont
Series: Baldwin's Last Stand [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193900
Comments: 50
Kudos: 66





	1. To Catch a Vampire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Diana knows will drive Baldwin crazy.

Diana read through her emails and frowned. There was no help for it, the Congregation would need to convene to recognize the witch’s new representative. Eloise Harrison, Vivian’s sister, was replacing Satu who had thankfully been recalled.

There had been a seismic shift in the alliances that dominated creature politics. For the first time in its thousand years of existence, the Congregation was very much controlled by women. With their strong friendships and determination to collaborate rather than undermine, the pace of progress was accelerating well beyond the comfort zone of the more conservative factions.

On the previous two occasions, she’d been accompanied by Gallowglass and Fernando, then by Fernando and Marcus. This time, she had no doubt that Matthew would come with her. As always when they were both away, Marcus and Phoebe would be in residence at Sept-Tours, acting as the guardians and protectors of the children. Diana was under no illusions that Matthew would be satisfied to let her venture to Isola della Stella with less than the maximum protection he could provide. This time, she intended to choose her second bodyguard.

“You will accompany us this time, Baldwin.” She announced in their weekly call.

“I’m busy, Diana. The whole point of appointing you to head up the Congregation was so that I could stop going.”

“Tough.” On the other side of the room, Matthew was smirking. The only thing that was making the prospect of hours in Baldwin’s company palatable was the fact that Baldwin resented it even more than Matthew did. “Don’t make me come out to Berlin to get you, brother. You won’t like it if I do.” As obnoxious as the head of the de Claremont clan could be, Diana had come to realise that it was rooted in a deep commitment to his family. Though they had not chosen him to be a godparent to either of the twins, and he hadn’t asked; the way he doted on Rebecca in particular had given him away. Baldwin was feeling broody. And the Book of Life had already told Diana the answer he needed.

“Matthew!” Baldwin called out, rightfully assuming that his brother was within earshot. “Control your mate.”

“She’s your sister.” Matthew answered. Though he and Baldwin kept up a disgruntled banter, they had come to some understanding after Baldwin had threatened to move in and take over if Diana did not take care of herself while Matthew recovered from Chelm. Vampire males bonded over blood and they both had a blood link to Diana.

“I’ll meet you in Venice.” Baldwin grumbled before cutting off the call.

“When is the last time you attended a Congregation gathering?” Diana asked Matthew. Matthew frowned and thought about it for a moment. “In the summer of 1590. Philippe suddenly decided that he would retake de Claremont seat. I didn’t really understand why at the time, of course, but we’d been to Sept-Tours before the winter meeting and there would have been no end to the complications if I’d returned after everything that happened. I imagine that he spent quite a while limiting the fallout of our time in Bohemia.”

“Probably.” Diana agreed. One of the downsides of being escorted to these meetings was the inability to linger in the archives. One day, she would treat herself to a deep dive into the edicts and other documents that Matthew had produced when he was on the Congregation. She also planned on looking at Philippe’s original works.

Their arrival at Isola della Stella was remarkable. To have two previous representatives serve as mere bodyguards was an unmistakable show of support. That those two representatives also happened to be each be heads of vampire families was not lost on anyone. “Diana!” Eloise greeted.

“Welcome to the Congregation, Eloise.” Diana greeted. “I don’t suppose Sidonie is being overly welcoming but have you met Janet yet?”

“I have, she came over with me from the mainland.” Vivian confirmed. Diana turned to encompass the two male vampires. “Let me introduce you. This is my husband, Matthew, and his brother, Baldwin de Claremont.”

“Miss Harrison.” Matthew greeted, extending his hand in a very un-vampirish way. Eloise was an unattached warm blood so the human courtesy was appropriate. Baldwin growled and shouldered him aside to perform a very formal bow. Beneath her skin, Diana felt a new page being added to the Book of Life. “Eloise, would you like to come out to dinner this evening?” Diana suggested. The newest witch on the Congregation was clearly intrigued by the vampire before her.

“I’d like that.” Before anything more could be said, the bells tolled five and it was time to begin the meeting.

Three hours later, the meeting adjourned for the day. Eloise had been welcomed to the Congregation and a few minor resolutions addressed. There were still two days of meetings left but the amount of work remaining was very manageable. Eloise and Diana made their way to the courtyard where Matthew was leaning against one of the columns that surrounded the cloister while Baldwin paced. Knowing that even the separation of a few meters and a single door was a challenge to Matthew, Diana immediately hurried to her mate for a kiss. Matthew breathed in her scent and gave her a quick hug before whispering in her ear. “You are a very, very wicked witch.” He told her. “I think you broke Baldwin’s brain.” Diana smirked.

“Baldwin, are you still able to join us for dinner or will you be heading back to Berlin?” Diana asked innocently. Her brother narrowed his eyes at her.

“I’ll finish out my protection detail.” He confirmed, offering his arm to Eloise.

Dinner was a delightful affair. Baldwin was at his most charming. Not a hint of the bossy, overbearing vampire prince made it past the lively and funny companion. If he occasionally took a slightly deeper breath, taking in the scent of his dinner companion; Eloise didn’t notice. Matthew was delighting in contributing very unhelpful conversational traps for his brother. Diana, on the other hand, was trying to ease things while occasionally giving her spouse a not-so-gentle kick under the table. The two women enjoyed the meal in Venice’s finest restaurant while the two vampires opted for a fish carpaccio and some wine. “I’ll see you back to your hotel.” Baldwin offered as they stepped onto a gondola. Matthew guided Diana to another one. To his credit, he didn’t start chuckling until they were well out of Eloise’s hearing. A dark look from Baldwin in the disappearing gondola suggested that he had heard his brother’s amusement.

Matthew waited until they were in their bedroom to catch Diana around the waist. “What are the chances that Baldwin will ever escape that neat trap?” He asked.

“Absolutely none.” Diana answered. “Eloise owns a day-care centre that she has been building up for at least forty years. She won’t leave that behind.” Matthew roared with laughter at the prospect of his brother leaving Berlin behind so he could dote on a nursery school owner in tiny little Madison.

“I wonder how much she’s enjoying _bundling._ ” Diana said drily. It still rankled that Matthew had denied them for so long in his utterly misguided desire to protect her. Matthew chuckled and nuzzled her neck. Though he never drank from her there, he did have a habit of licking the spot where he’d bit her the night she’d saved his life in Madison. Possibly as a lingering effect of his bite and Miriam’s sealing of the wound with vampire blood, the spot was sensitive.

“Probably no more than you did. And I’ll bet that Baldwin isn’t enjoying it too much either.” Matthew confirmed.

“You don’t think he’s actually making her wait?” Diana asked in disbelief. “But they were practically devouring each other at the table. Honestly, it’s a marvel they made it to dessert!”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure that Baldwin has parked himself in the lobby of her hotel as a guard.”

“But why? Eloise is fifty if she’s a day. Certainly, that’s old enough to hook up with Baldwin if she wants to. And he doesn’t have blood rage to worry about. What possible reason is there not to enjoy each other?”

“Diana, Baldwin’s scent changed the instant he met her. Didn’t you notice?”

“Maybe, a bit.”

“Baldwin has never mated and he’s several centuries older than I am.” Matthew pointed out. “He won’t do anything to jeopardise this.”

“Even so.”

“Everything will change for him. Baldwin’s about to discover a whole new world of pain.” Matthew seemed cheerful at the prospect.

“And joy?” Diana asked, worrying that maybe she’d done her vampire brother more harm than good. Matthew nodded and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

“More joy than he’s ever felt in all the previous centuries combined. But with that, he’ll suddenly be aware that his entire existence rests on a very fragile warmblood. It’s the most terrifying feeling in the world. And he’ll learn that after living all that time on his own terms now he’ll be playing to a witch’s tune.”

“You don’t think she’s a bit old for him?” Diana asked. Eloise was at least twenty years older than Baldwin had been when he was reborn. Though he was almost two thousand years older, when they were together, Eloise looked like she could be his mother.

“No, I don’t think so. Come to bed, _mon Coeur_.”


	2. You Can Go Home Again - You Just Need to Silence Your Phone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin is frustrated - but Matthew has no intension of following suit.

Shortly before dawn on the morning they were meant to leave Venice, Baldwin called Matthew down with rather more courtesy than he’d previously demonstrated. Standing in the grand salon, he merely called his brother’s name in a normal speaking voice. Slipping out of bed, Matthew pulled on a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt. It had become his preferred at-home attire since he’d discovered that it did interesting things to his wife’s pheromones.

Baldwin was a wreck. He’d run his fingers through his hair and was pacing across the room. “She refuses to come to Berlin.” He told Matthew. “And she won’t let me go with her to Madison, either.” Matthew took a seat. He remembered how much he’d babbled to Hamish when he’d first fallen in love with Diana. This was going to take a while but promised to be quite entertaining. Baldwin definitely had a bad case of pre-mating jitters.

“So, I guess your opinion on the qualities of _a fucking witch_ have changed?” Baldwin shot him a sour look.

“This is killing me, Matthew. Eloise wouldn’t even let me upgrade her to first class. It’s bad enough that she’s flying commercial. But economy? Are all witches this pig-headed?”

“You have met my wife, right? And her aunt?” Matthew challenged. “Honestly, Baldwin. How are you just noticing this now?”

“She won’t listen to me. I’ve known her three days and she’s driving me crazy.” Baldwin’s voice was definitely accusatory.

“Sounds about right.” Matthew said cheerfully. “Three days after I met Diana, she already had me tied up in knots.”

“I don’t like this.” Baldwin said. “I can’t have her galivanting about where she might run into another vampire.”

“She’s a witch on the Congregation, Baldwin. Hardly a helpless waif. And I’ve met her sister. The Harrison blood is strong. I’m sure that Eloise can take care of herself.” Matthew reassured. It was particularly annoying to be empathising with Baldwin. For centuries they’d been at each other’s throats and now they were finally finding common ground in the misery of being powerless in the face of love.

“I feel like I can’t breathe anymore.” Baldwin admitted, his hand coming up to rub his sternum. “Whenever she’s out of my sight, all I can think of is La Pierre. I didn’t get it then but now when I remember it, when I imagine how it would feel to know that she was hurt and scared and at the bottom of an oubliette…” Matthew didn’t need any reminder of how that awful day had felt. What he needed now was to get Baldwin moving so he could back to Diana and reassure himself that she was safe and his.

“How does Eloise feel?”

“I think she likes me.” Baldwin said. “But she doesn’t obey me!”

“You’re the strategist, Baldwin. Make a plan. Woo her.” Baldwin nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. She’ll be waking up soon. I need to get back to the hotel.” Without taking a proper leave, Baldwin left. Chuckling, Matthew returned to the bedroom and striped off his clothes. His warmblood was still sound asleep. In the warmth of the Venice summer, she’d kicked off the covers and was sprawled naked on the bed. The Sun’s rays seemed to make the marks Satu had left on her more prominent. Baldwin’s reminder of the events at La Pierre had fired up his need to wrap himself around her to protect her from even a thought or memory of harm.

Climbing onto the bed, Matthew propped himself up in a plank over Diana’s body. He was fascinated as her skin revealed a metallic chain beneath her skin. As his eyes followed the movement, Diana’s blood began to sing. Intrigued, he lowered his lips to her skin, following the path that his eyes had taken. The sound of his wife’s blood became louder, rewarding his attention. After a few moments, the silver settled within the scars Satu had inflicted. For a moment, Matthew hesitated.

“Please, don’t stop.” Diana said quietly. Lowering himself to his elbows, Matthew licked and kissed along the ridge of the brand. Slowly, Diana clasped her hands at the small of her back. Unsure, Matthew moved back up her body so he could nuzzle her neck.

“What do you need, _mon Coeur_?”

“I need to feel your strength.” She admitted. Matthew smiled and adjusted their positions so that she was on her back, her wrists firmly in his grasp. When he kissed her, she nipped at his bottom lip and he frowned at her. “What have you been told about biting in bed?” She shrugged and took a deep breath, squirming slightly against his thigh. She was pinned to the bed from shoulder to waist but had no qualms about running her bare instep up his leg. Lowering his head, Matthew sank his teeth into her heart vein. The more they performed this ritual, where he took her blood and she gave him her witch’s kiss, the more they were able to share specific thoughts, details, and desires. The desires Diana shared were as much physical as emotional. She wanted to feel his ability to protect her on a visceral level. The prospect of being able to indulge his own impulses was delightful. As he took in more blood, he caught a glimpse of a memory from the trip to Bohemia. He remembered the moment. They’d stopped for the night and he’d gone down to the river to wash up. He’d come back wearing only the black leather riding trousers, his shirt flung over his shoulder. He had thought that Diana was asleep but she’d watched him and the arousal of her memory came with her blood. She’d once said to him that she wished she could gift him the ability to see himself as she saw him. Whenever he took her blood, that was exactly what she shared and it was humbling. He saw her memory of his muscles moving under the skin of his back and even the flood of liquid warmth that she’d felt. The next sip of blood brought vivid images of intriguing fantasies.

Forcing himself to stop before he gorged on his mate’s desires, he licked the wound closed and looked up at her. “Really?”

“Sometimes. Now.” Diana looked away, her cheeks pink.

“Eyes on me, Diana.” He commanded softly. Her witch’s blood immediately changed its tune, telling him even before she obeyed that she was enjoying this. Gently, he adjusted her position so that her hands were lodged under the pillow. He’d noticed that his wife tended to tug on her own hair when she was aroused beyond endurance and he didn’t want to risk her ending up bald.

Sitting back on his heels, he adjusted her legs so that her knees were bent and spread wide. “Let’s see how loud your blood will sing for me. You are not to move your feet or your hands.”

“But the rest of my body?” Diana whispered.

“You may squirm as much as you’d like.” Matthew told her with a wolfish grin. Looking down, he could see the silver lines flashing under her skin. One moment they appeared on her neck where he’d fed from her in Madison, the next flashing along her belly.

Matthew watched, fascinated, as Diana’s body drew him a picture of her desires. His gaze alone was enough to raise lines of goosebumps. When his fingers followed the same path, his wife’s body went into overdrive. The cocktail of oxytocin and dopamine was almost as potent as her adrenaline storms had been when he’d first met her.

There were more silver trails now, streaking up and down her legs. Though she obeyed his command to keep her feet where they were, Diana’s toes were curling with the effort not to move. Her feet and the apex to her thighs were starting to glow blue and Matthew suspected that this game would need to wrap up quite fast if they wanted to avoid setting fire to the sheets.

“Matthew, please.” She whispered.

“Shh…” Lowering himself, he deliberately let her take all of his weight. Her legs promptly wrapped around his hips. “No.” He moved her legs back into the position he’d dictated and began kissing his way down her body. When her hands began to drift, he forced her back into position. It had been only minutes but Diana was already struggling to contain her magic. Even without the blue glow, the familiar scent of hot electrical wiring was alarming. Venice was a lethal place for a witch who commanded both witch water and witch fire to lose control. Explorations of control would be best undertaken in the safety of their bedroom at Les Revenants. As much as they were both enjoying this, Matthew wasn’t prepared to take any risks with Diana’s safety. Lifting her hips, he settled himself in her body. Her orgasm hit her so hard that the vibrations of her witch’s blood rippled through every bone in his body. His own orgasm was amplified by the feel of his wife’s tongue licking along his collarbone.

When he could, he rolled onto his back and let Diana reach up and kiss his forehead. He let her explore his thoughts and chuckled when her cheeks reddened when she detected what he’d read in her thoughts.

She recovered faster than he did and was soon sitting up, swinging her feet over the side of the bed. “You know, I kind of thought your control would last a little bit longer.” She teased. In a flash, Matthew had her pinned beneath his body again.

“Oh, I’m not done with you, wife. Only I’m not prepared to engulf Venice in a conflagration of water and electricity. Your kinky desires won’t distract me from seeing to your wellbeing.” Matthew kissed her gently. “Now that I know what you’re craving, you can expect to be denied any control at all when I get you home.” With that promise, Matthew headed for the shower.


	3. Return to Les Revenants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin - and Matthew - explore the very frustrating consequences of vampire/warm-blood mating.

Eloise Harrison pulled into the driveway of the Bishop house. She’d casually asked Diana if Sarah was in Madison at the moment and had been relieved to know her old friend was, indeed, at home. Ever since Diana had met Matthew de Claremont, it seemed like Sarah was living a jet-setting life. At the very least, she travelled to see the Bishop-Clairmont children at least twice a month, where ever they were.

The lights were on and as soon as Eloise stepped out of the car, a large male vampire appeared to investigate. “It’s okay, Fernando.” Sarah said, hurrying past him. She wrapped Eloise in a hug. “I had a feeling you’d be showing up.”

“Did Diana call you?” Eloise asked.

“No, Baldwin did.” Sarah answered.

“He’s lovely.” Eloise said, causing both Sarah and Fernando’s jaws to drop.

“Baldwin de Claremont? Vampire? Built like a brick outhouse?” Eloise nodded in confirmation. “This will require the good stuff.” Sarah announced. Fernando nodded and headed into the house. “Tell me _everything._ ” She said, dragging her friend into the living room.

“He was at the Congregation meeting with Diana and her husband. I can’t believe Diana married someone like him. I always expected her to find some nice, easy-going academic. Matthew doesn’t seem like that kind of person at all. Though, he does seem to think the Sun rises and sets on her.”

“It’s mutual. And frequently nauseating.” Sarah muttered. “So, tell us about what happened with Baldwin.”

“Well, I met him on the first day. He and Matthew accompanied Diana. Then the four of us went out to dinner and he was utterly charming. I probably don’t even need to say that, you know him!”

“Apparently not.” Sarah muttered.

“He’s just so… young!” Eloise said. “He looks like he could be my grandson!”

“But he’s over two thousand years old.” Fernando said gently.

“He took me dancing.” Eloise said. “After we had dinner with Matthew and Diana, we went to this lovely club where they had a band that played sixties and seventies classics. That man can _move_!” The phone rang and Fernando reached for the receiver.

“Bishop residence… yes, she’s here. Safe. Hold on.” He extended the phone to Eloise. “Baldwin.”

“Hello Baldwin.” Sarah’s eyes widened at the unmistakably flirtatious tone in her friend’s voice. Fernando showed a bit more decorum when he overheard Baldwin’s tone.

“How was your trip home?”

“It was fine. I’m just having a glass of wine with Sarah.”

“Tell Fernando to drive you home. I don’t want you driving after a long flight and a drink.”

“It’s just one glass of wine, Baldwin. It’ll be fine.” Even as she spoke, Fernando’s phone buzzed with a text message. Biting back a grin, he held it up so she could see the message from Baldwin. _Guard her for me_.

“Really, Baldwin! I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing so quite well for decades.” Eloise scolded primly.

“Fernando will see you home safe.” Baldwin insisted. “I will be heading out to my place in New York City on Friday. Can I take you out to dinner?”

“Yes. I’d like that.”

“I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock on Friday night.” Baldwin told her before hanging up.

“He didn’t say goodbye.” Eloise muttered, returning the phone to its cradle.

“Normal human conversation is a new skill for Baldwin.” Fernando explained. The situation was completely surreal.

“So, what does Baldwin like?”

Having arrived home long after the children’s bedtime, Diana and Matthew decided to leave them at Sept-Tours for the night. Diana’s blood was still humming as she thought of that morning. Her control over her magic was much better than it had been a year ago but something about that morning had just short-circuited her brain.

The house was empty. Marthe and Alain had both gone up to Sept-Tours to help with the children and Jack had probably joined the rest of the family. He preferred not to be alone. This suited Matthew just fine. Unlocking the door, he took Diana’s hand and led her to the kitchen. “Take your clothes off. Now.” He ordered.

“Oui, _sieur_.” She whispered, deliberately lowering her gaze. Matthew’s entire body clenched at the respectful address. He was rapidly becoming accustomed to being addressed as _sieur_ by others. It was formal and respectful. On some level, hearing Diana use the word was incredibly erotic. It shouldn’t be so viscerally satisfying for his powerful, capable, sexy wife to adopt a submissive posture but it was. He felt as if every synapse in his nervous system was firing. Judging from Diana’s changing scent, she was finding her own pleasure in this bit of submission.

Diana kicked off her shoes first. Her top and bra followed and a quick flick of the snap on her trousers had the silky fabric sliding to the floor. Standing in just a lacy pair of panties, she watched Matthew’s feet approach her.

As she had done to him that night when he’d first told her he loved her; he walked around her slowly. He had deliberately left the lights in the house off so the only illumination came from the bright lights in the courtyard and Diana’s _glaem_. Again, flashes of silver moved under Diana’s skin. His fingers touched the spots where her magic begged him to touch and the silver brightened to a true shine. Her shimmer was increasing and her toes and fingers were tinged with blue. He could feel the static even from a few inches away.

Clearly, his wife was enjoying this new game. Having her submitting to him was going to challenge both of them more than he could have anticipated. Once more in front of her, he slid a hand under her hair and gently urged her forward for a kiss. She was so utterly pliant and beautiful. “What. If. We.” Matthew whispered into her hair. “Play a little game?” She nodded and bit her lip hard enough to draw a drop of blood. Matthew swooped down, collecting it as his due.

“Rules?” Diana whispered.

“No talking.” Matthew murmured. “No magic.” He added, breathing in deeply. “Immediate and complete obedience.” He continued. “And no trying to make me go faster. You wanted to see what it would be like to give yourself over to me completely?” Diana nodded. “I want your complete surrender.”

“Oui, _sieur._ ” Those were rapidly becoming Matthew’s favourite words in any language, ever. The sound of Diana acknowledging his absolute authority was sublime. He would always consider her more than his equal but it didn’t mean the primal part of his brain couldn’t enjoy the moment and what she was offering. Without breaking eye contact, he ran his fingers down from her shoulder and along her breast, taking a moment to roll her nipple between forefinger and thumb, before continuing to the lace at the top of her panties. He dropped to one knee and tugged her panties down her legs, urging her with a touch to step out of them. Dropping a kiss on her belly, he stood up, deliberately sliding the scrap of silk into his trouser pocket.

“Close your eyes.” Walking over to the fridge, he quickly pulled out the plate of fruit, cheese, and crackers that Marthe had left in case they came home early. He could smell Diana’s hunger and though she seemed disinclined to ruin the moment with any mention of it, he refused to allow his mate to be hungry even for a moment. Returning to the table, he put the plate down and pulled out a chair. “Come to me.” He ordered softly. Diana kept her eyes closed as she took the three steps needed to reach his side. Reaching out, Matthew guided her so that she straddled his thigh. “Open your mouth.” He ordered, piling a piece of the local cheese on a thin slice of apple. He placed the morsel on her tongue and tapped her chin with his finger, encouraging her to consume the food.

He deliberately took his time, knowing that this simple ritual was making them both more aware of each other. However they explored each other’s desires, taking care of each other was paramount.

A damp patch was growing on his thigh and Diana was beginning to glow, more blue than gold. “You are losing control of your magic, Diana.” He told her softly. “Breathe.” After a few moments, the blue glow receded. “Good girl.” He pulled her forward for a kiss and traced patterns on her skin. As he’d expected, the effort to control the random sparks of magical energy was forcing her to use more resources. Just as sensory deprivation had helped her in the woods in Madison, blocking out her magic was leaving her normal warmblood senses unguarded. Lifting her to her feet, Matthew stood up and immediately swung her up into his arms and headed to their bedroom.

He wanted to see just how tightly he could ratchet up Diana’s desire. At the moment, only the fact that he was the one doing the touching was keeping him sane. It would take very little for him to lose his own control again. This morning’s unexpectedly short lovemaking had left him hungering for his mate all day. There was absolute trust between them and there had been all along but this explicit surrender was tapping into the very fantasies that he’d once told her no warmblood could fathom.

Placing her in the centre of the bed, he ordered her to roll onto her belly. Reaching for the lotion she kept on the bedside table, he sniffed at the contents of the jar. It was one of her own concoctions. Citrus, olive oil, calendula, and a hint of cloves. “Hands behind your back and bend your knees.” He ordered softly.

Diana’s glowing feet came up, flashing with silver sparks. Matthew took each foot and began rubbing in the lotion. His fingers pressing into her instep and gliding firmly down her calves. Almost immediately, the silver chains flowed and began to pool over her bottom and hips. She looked like she was bathed in quicksilver. Matthew smiled, filing away the knowledge about the sensitivity of his wife’s feet and the intriguing possibilities that offered for future intimacies.

Her breathing was irregular and her witch’s blood sang louder, a tune that was different from her usual hum of happiness. Intrigued, Matthew indulged the scientific part of his brain, experimenting with different movements and pressure on her skin. He could have gone on forever but, as always, he was careful to monitor his wife’s warm-blood body for any signs of fatigue.

 _Please Matthew!_ Matthew blinked as his wife’s demand exploded in his brain. He knew from experience that she might well be unaware that she’d even done it. Nevertheless, he had set a rule and no matter how you looked at it, she’d just broken it. “No talking and no magic.” He reminded her. “Talking directly into my brain using magic is certainly not allowed.” Diana moaned.

Reaching down, Matthew pulled her hips up until her bottom was presented to him. When she would have pushed her shoulders up, he pressed her back down. Satisfied that she would maintain the position, he knelt at the side of the bed. For a moment, he struggled to contain his own reaction to the tidal wave of scents coming off his wife. He felt like he might become the first known case of a vampire overdosing on his mate’s desire. Running his hands up her legs, he smiled as she squirmed slightly but held her position.

Downstairs in the kitchen, he heard his phone ring. The Imperial March from Star Wars. Baldwin was calling.

Turning his attention back to his wife, Matthew began licking a path along her skin. Her hands were twitching and paused to capture them. Her nails raked over the skin of his wrists as she anchored herself to him while his mouth explored her.

The Scooby-Doo theme song chimed from her phone downstairs. Baldwin was calling. Again. Not for the first time, Matthew wished he’d taken any one of the previous opportunities he’d had over the years to definitively rid himself of Baldwin.

His momentary distraction had been enough to let him ratchet up Diana’s arousal beyond the point of no return. Releasing her wrists and standing up, he pulled her back onto himself just in time. One stroke, two – and they were both caught in a cloud of magical shooting stars as her orgasm exploded.

He was still mid-orgasm when the landline phone started ringing.


	4. Why are Warmbloods so Complicated?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Matthew explores Diana's new desires, Baldwin sees his plans thwarted for now.

Eloise Harrison smiled at her reflection. She’d never dated much, really. She was content with running her small business, running the Madison’s book club, and taking care of the multitude of small animals that she fostered while waiting for their forever-homes.

There had been a few men over the years, of course. All of them perfectly adequate. Somehow, they never seemed to be quite right for her. Maybe because she was so happy in her own mind or so very capable of managing her own life. She wanted an equal partner. Someone who had his own preoccupations and wouldn’t get his nose out of joint if she made plans that didn’t revolve around him.

Baldwin Montclair, or de Claremont she supposed, was just such a man. He’d told her he worked in Finance, splitting his time between New York, Paris, and Berlin mostly. She knew from Sarah that he was also the head of a vampire family and a Knight of Lazarus. Everything she had heard so far suggested that he might just be the kind of charming companion that she could enjoy an evening and the occasional benefit with. He’d be too busy to become a problem and she liked that about him. The fact that he looked so much younger than she was didn’t seem to be a problem. She’d asked him if it bothered him and he’d said no. He’d explained that for a vampire who never aged, evidence of aging was something of a turn on. Who knew there was such a thing as a geriatric kink?

She’d gone shopping with Sarah during the week. They’d gone all the way to Oneida so that Eloise could find something to wear for her date without raising a lot of questions in Madison. She’d settled on a very flattering but not too revealing lavender dress. Baldwin hadn’t told her where they were going but the dress would be appropriate for any of the sit-down eateries in the county.

There was no hope they wouldn’t be noticed, of course. Baldwin was drop-dead gorgeous and even if the Covenant had been broken, a witch and an ancient vampire going out to dinner was always going to draw attention, especially in a small town.

Checking her watch, she realised that it was nearly seven o’clock. She had time to apply a fresh bit of lipstick and pull on the slightly-excessive but lovely heels she’d splurged on to match her dress. She made sure to slip a credit card, a bit of money, and her mobile phone into her clutch purse.

A strange sound caught her attention when she stepped into the kitchen to check that the back door was locked. Frowning, she listened as it got louder and louder. The thumping sound was familiar and, in a moment, she realised what it was. Racing back to the front of the house, she watched as a helicopter came to rest in the middle of the school baseball pitch. Baldwin jumped out, a large bouquet in his hand as he headed towards her house.

Eloise took a deep breath. There was no way that this display would go unnoticed. Nevertheless, she hurried to open the door so he could get inside before an actual crowd gathered. “These are for you.”

“Thank you, Baldwin.” Eloise accepted the flowers and the soft kiss on her cheek. Given how little vampires breathed, there was no mistaking the deep breath Baldwin took as a clear message. Heading to the kitchen, she quickly found a vase for the spectacular arrangement.

“Are we going to the Copper Turret?” She asked.

“No, I’ve made reservations at Manhatta.” Baldwin said, naming the current top restaurant in Manhattan, roughly two hundred miles away. Eloise was horrified. Her dress might be perfectly appropriate for small-town Madison but she wasn’t at all dressed for a high-end restaurant in New York City frequented by A-listers. She wished she owned something fancier to change into but it was too late for that. As she arranged the flowers, she felt the coolness of Baldwin’s gaze on her. Most vampires she’d dealt with before had looked her in the eye but Baldwin was focused on her neck and shoulders. When his gaze started to drift lower, she turned quickly. The thought of those cool eyes taking in her generous backside was not something she was prepared for.

“Thank you for the flowers, Baldwin. We should go if we don’t want to miss our reservation.”

Having never been in a helicopter before, Eloise was fascinated as they lifted straight up and headed south. Within the cabin, sound insulation made it possible to speak without yelling. Baldwin was charming and attentive, telling her about growing up in Rome as a younger son in a prominent family.

“So, you’re older than Diana’s Matthew?” Eloise asked.

“By about six centuries.” Baldwin confirmed.

“Did you know him before he became a vampire?”

“Possibly. Not sure I would have especially noticed a human villager back then.” Baldwin admitted, not prepared to break the vampire code by divulging another vampire’s stories. “Tell me about you. Have you always lived in Madison?” Eloise nodded. She needed a distraction from her new worry. How on Earth would she get home without alerting the entire county of just how long she’d been out with a vampire?

Diana and Matthew had just returned from their morning run and were heading to the kitchen when their phones pinged with a WhatsApp message. _Eloise is going to flip._ Sarah had written before attaching an image. The front page of the Oneida Dispatch featured a picture of Baldwin leading Eloise Harrison across a field towards a helicopter.

Having spoken to Sarah just after Baldwin had asked Eloise out to dinner and again after the two women had been out shopping, Diana knew that Eloise was slightly worried about the prospect of dating a vampire. After centuries of prohibition against witch-vampire relationships, Eloise was understandably cautious about her budding relationship with Baldwin. She had her life sorted just the way she liked it and she had some misgivings about the risks of even a short-lived flirtation with an ancient vampire.

At the same time, it was clear that Baldwin was not equipped to seriously court a warm-blood. His past experience had consisted of purely sexual relationships where he exchanged expensive baubles for sexual favours. He’d long surrounded himself with models and starlets who were only too happy to jump in his bed to further their own goals. The women in his bed had always been interchangeable and so he had no framework for dealing with someone like Eloise. He was spectacularly miscalculating and Matthew was cheerfully making matters worse by encouraging him to indulge his vampire ways.

“You really shouldn’t enjoy his misery this much.” Diana told her husband.

“Diana, in the last week I haven’t been able to make love to my wife a single time without your brother interrupting us. I think that enjoying his misery is entirely fair since he’s been causing mine.”

It was true. The night they’d returned from Venice, Baldwin had called demanding where to go for dinner in Madison. Since then, there had been calls about what flowers were the most meaningful to witches, how many vampires lived in New York state and might take an interest in Eloise, and so on endlessly. It had gotten to the point that Matthew had taken to unplugging the landline phones and taking the batteries out of their mobile phones before even reaching for Diana.

This had not stopped Baldwin from showing up on Thursday morning, having detoured from his Berlin-New York jaunt, to get Diana’s opinion on what he should wear for dinner. Matthew had roared with laughter at his brother’s bewildered expression as he admitted that it was imperative that he chose the right shirt to impress. Baldwin had told them that he intended on staying in New York for the next few weeks.

In the kitchen, Marthe was feeding the children. Rebecca was squishing through a combination of deer tartar with blackberries while Philip was intent on the utter destruction of a croissant with jam. As always, Rebecca offered a handful of squished meat to her father who cheerfully tasted it and declared it delicious. As always, the area around the highchairs was carnage. Apollo was helping by quickly eating any morsels that came his way. Not wanting to leave Marthe with the mess, Diana flicked her fingers to magically clean up what Apollo missed. Matthew lifted the toddlers free and carried them to the sink, quickly tending to sticky, messy fingers and faces. Marthe smiled and reached for her coat, while it suited Ysabeau and Marthe to dedicate a few hours each day helping out with the infants, they were sensitive to the preference Matthew and Diana had for privacy and time alone with their children.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, Marthe. Thank you.” Matthew said. Something in his voice alerted Diana to the fact that the twins’ naptime was not going to be spent cataloguing Philippe’s personal papers as she’d intended. When his mother’s retainer had left, Matthew once again picked up the twins, resting them against his hips as he walked towards her.

“Now… I’ll put them down for their nap and I want you,” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “To run yourself a bath. I have plans for you, wife.” Diana chuckled and kissed him back before dropping a kiss on the head of each of the children and heading for their bedroom suite.

In the bathroom, Diana smiled as she ran the water into the large copper tub that Matthew had chosen when he redesigned their bathroom. It was deep and large enough for both of them to be completely submerged to their shoulders. While it filled, she stepped into the shower and quickly washed her hair and the sweat of running off of herself. Reaching into the drawer where she kept her few cosmetics, she took out the vial of blended essential oils she’d prepared a few days ago. The combination of bay, citrus, and lavender was quite common in the region but she’d added a drop of liquorice and black current that was certain to intrigue her husband. Tipping a few drops into the hot water of the bath, she got in.

Though she couldn’t smell the oils, she knew that Matthew could. She’d been playing this game for several months. She had a spreadsheet on her computer that tracked exactly what blends he responded best to. Chemical and artificial scents seemed to have no appeal for him but a bit of cocoa oil here or simply running a frond of rosemary between her fingers was a sure way to catch his attention.

Matthew got the twins down in record time and joined her in their bathroom. Like her, he showered quickly. He hadn’t broken a sweat as he kept up with her but Diana quite enjoyed lingering in the warm water while she watched him.

Already, the silver flashes were appearing under her skin. It was unfair that her body now gave all of her secrets to him but she had to make do with the normal senses to uncover what pleased Matthew most. Dripping water across the floor, he didn’t bother even towelling off as he crossed over to the tub. He took a deep breath and smiled. She shifted so he could slide in behind her.

“Lean forward, _mon Coeur_.” He murmured. His hands carefully adjusted her position until he could see the entirety of her back. Diana was surprised when his fingers traced the marks left by Satu. He rarely touched them though they often drew his gaze. Diana could feel his erection against the base of her spine. Clearly, he wasn’t repelled. “You like when I touch you here.” He told her. It wasn’t a question but Diana answered with a nod. “Tell me why.”

“The day after you first drank my blood,” Diana began, “Miriam told me that loving de Clermonts always leaves a mark.” Matthew stiffened but made no comment. Miriam should never have said such a thing to Diana but she wasn’t wrong. “I guess, somewhere along the line, I stopped associating that day with Satu or Gerbert, or the Congregation. She wanted to shame me; I think. But when I think of that day now, the pain has long faded. What hasn’t is how safe, and loved, I felt when you rescued me.” Matthew scooped water over her back with his hands, listening as Diana spoke. They hadn’t really ever talked about the marks after that first night. He’d been careful of them though. “I just wanted to curl up and nurse my hurt but you wouldn’t let me. You didn’t let me skip the bath, the stitches, or the medications. You didn’t even let me go to sleep without eating and having a cup of tea. You even ganged up on me with Sarah when you wanted her to tend my back.” Matthew smiled at the memory. Diana had such a cute sulk when she didn’t get her way. She didn’t need to know that taking care of her beyond what she wanted, and all the way to what she needed, had been the medicine his frayed nerves needed.

“There’s something beyond logic or reason.” Diana admitted. “Something that I really like about knowing that anyone who sees those marks will know that I am bound to you.” Leaning forward, Matthew kissed the centre of the star.

“It’s visceral.” He agreed. “I hate that you suffered at all, or that it was done because of your love for me. But when I see my insignia carved into your flesh, I can’t help the feeling of possessiveness that washes over me.”

Diana moved slightly and dropped a kiss on the inside of his knee. “Now, tell me about these new found fantasies you’ve been having.” He ordered, pleased as he saw her cheeks become a deep pink.

“I don’t know what you mean.” She lied, making him chuckle.

“You really are the worst liar.” He told her. “Tell me.” He repeated, leaning forward to nip lightly at her shoulder. She took a deep breath and he knew that she was bracing herself to admit to her deep desires. Their rituals of his drinking her blood and her giving him her witch’s kiss let them share much without words but he knew that being made to confess her desires out loud was different. It wasn’t simply, passively letting her thoughts pass to him. This was choosing to share a piece of her most private thoughts in the bright light of day.

“Where should I start?” She asked.

“Sieur.” Matthew prompted. He knew that the formal address, the acknowledgement of his authority, was something that had a profound effect on his wife’s brain.

“Sieur.” She dutifully repeated. Her arms moved so that her hands rested on his ankles. She rubbed her cheek against his knee as she gathered her thoughts.

“That night, in Madison. When you drank. You numbed my neck.” She said softly. “But when you drink from my heart vein, you don’t. You make sure I feel it, even it means a little bit of pain.”

“Correct.” Matthew agreed. Beneath the water, his fingers slid between her legs, finding the slippery wetness there. The touch was deliberate. He wanted her to feel him as intimately as possible as she told him what was on her mind.

“I like it.” She whispered. “I probably shouldn’t. It makes no sense, but I love it. I think, maybe, it’s because it reminds me of a core truth.” Beneath the water, Diana’s body clenched on Matthew’s exploring fingers.

“What truth is that?” He asked when she hesitated.

“That no matter what, you will always provide what I need even if I think I don’t want it.” She moved to smile at him. “And really, it’s certainly more fun than all those injections you gave me after La Pierre and the vaccines before we went time walking.” She made a point of changing her expression to be disgruntled.

“So, life as a vampire wife doesn’t chafe too much?” He asked. He still hadn’t completely shaken the fear that his instincts to protect and control her would drive her away.

“Sometimes, I almost wish it would chafe more.” She admitted. “I’m probably crazy for even telling you this. You are already rather bossy. But sometimes I just want to have no choice but surrender. I love you so much, Matthew. It scares me some times. But then you always seem to find a way to remind me that I am safe and loved.” She moaned as Matthew’s fingers moved. He could feel the vibrations in her and knew that she was having to work hard not to allow her more electrical impulses free. Matthew did follow the Darwin Awards but he had no intention in being featured in them. “I like the feeling of danger that comes from playing with fire… or ice.” Matthew chuckled.

“And you would accept punishment, if I set rules in our bed and you broke them?” Diana nodded, squirming against his fingers.

“I might even break them on purpose.” She managed.

“I see.” Shifting his hands, Matthew easily grasped her hips and relocated her onto his erection. It was like sliding into lava. Her position, with legs extended gave her no purchase as Matthew easily moved her body along his length. Water sloshed over the sides of the tub as he carried them both to release. Diana muffled her scream against his knee and then became boneless against him. Matthew arched against her as he found his own release.

When he was done, Diana twisted so that she was laying facing him. Matthew smiled and dropped a kiss on her lips. “Whenever you need a bit of chafing,” he told her, “you will address me as _sieur_.” She nodded in agreement. “But we need a safe word.”

“I don’t need a safe word.” Diana refuted. “I’m perfectly safe with you.” Matthew’s hand delivered a sharp slap to her wet bottom that was now just over the waterline of the half-empty tub.

“ _We,_ ” Matthew emphasised. “Need a safe word. If either of us uses it, all play ends, immediately.” Diana shrugged, certain that this was unnecessary but willing to let Matthew set one if it made him happy. “How about Bodleian?”

“I thought a safe word was something that was unlikely to come up in the bedroom.” Diana said. “I’m sure we’ve talked about the Bod in bed before.”

“Despite my best efforts.” Matthew agreed.

“Prophesy.” Diana offered. “To remind us that we are each other’s destiny.”

“Perfect.”

In Baldwin’s penthouse, Eloise woke up to a spectacular view of Central Park. Looking up at the ceiling, she considered her current predicament. After dinner, she’d realised that everyone in town would know if she returned by helicopter. And it was a four hour drive back to Madison from the city. Baldwin seemed to have thought all of that out and had offered her a bed in his penthouse. While uncomfortable at the prospect of jumping into bed with a vampire after only a few hours of acquaintanceship, she’d accepted. To her surprise, he’d left her alone in a room that could rival a suite in a five-star hotel.

Despite this, the prospect of seeing Baldwin again made her nervous. He was nothing but courteous with her, even if his eyes gave away a bit more than that. She felt watched with a bit more vigilance than was entirely comfortable.

During the night, a fresh set of clothing had appeared. Tailored navy trousers, a cotton blouse, and a light grey cashmere cardigan were a perfect fit. Even a pair of ballerina flats in the softest leather imaginable were waiting. After showering, she dressed quickly and left the bedroom.

Baldwin folded the newspaper he’d been reading when he heard her approaching. “Good morning.” He greeted, rising. He came over and kissed her cheek before guiding her to a chair at the table. “Did you sleep well?”

“Very, thank you.”

“What would you like to do today?” He asked. Eloise could tell he was fully prepared to spend all day with her but she had things that needed to get done.

“I need to head back to Madison, I’m afraid. I wasn’t planning on staying away overnight and I didn’t make arrangements for someone to come and care for the animals I’m fostering at the moment. And I need to catch up on some business paperwork.”

“I could help.” Baldwin offered, too fast.

“That’s very kind, Baldwin. But it’s something I must do myself.”

“Very well.” For a two-thousand-year-old vampire, he sounded very much like a twenty-year-old boy who was disappointed not to get his way. “I’ll call the pilot.”

“No thank you. I prefer taking the bus back to Madison.” She told him.

“Why?” _Why indeed!_

“Because, getting picked up by helicopter last night was one thing. By now, the entire county will have heard that I was picked up by Baldwin de Claremont. But I categorically refuse to invite rank speculation about why I’m only returning this morning.” Personally, Baldwin was all in favour of everyone being entirely clear that she’d spent the night in his company. Even if there’d been a door between them.

“I need to speak with Sarah anyways so I can drive you home.” He finally said, unwilling to let her risk the dangers of public transportation.

“Very well. And thank you for the new clothes, Baldwin.”


	5. I Solemnly Swear Not to Buy A House

The drive from Manhattan to Madison was a revelation to Baldwin. He usually preferred to use his time on more lucrative activities than moving a piece of machinery through traffic. But being alone in a car, bathed in the scent of this fascinating warmblood was perfection.

He’d known her a little over a week now and he wanted to be with her every second. He’d already told his team that he’d be working from New York for the foreseeable future. As he drove, they spoke about their lives. There were too many secrets in his life that he couldn’t share. The prohibition of sharing the stories that belonged to others meant that even mentioning Diana or Matthew was uncomfortable. No such constraint appeared to plague witches though.

“I had Diana in the day care centre from the day her mother returned to work. She was such a bright, beautiful baby. Very magical, of course.” Eloise told him. Baldwin thought about all those years when his blood sister had been spellbound and kept quiet. Eloise told him about life in Madison but shied away from sharing too much of her own life. “Tell me about when you met Diana.” Eloise encouraged him. Remembering how prepared he’d been to condemn his sister to the untender mercies of the Congregation witches, Baldwin felt a ball of burning shame in his belly. But Eloise had asked him a question and he could not bring himself to lie.

“It wasn’t under the best of circumstances. She’d been captured and injured.” He said softly. “And, at the time, Matthew and I weren’t on the best of terms so I wasn’t entirely fair to her. But there was no mistaking her courage.” Sensing his reticence, Eloise offered a way out of the conversational thicket.

“And now? I imagine your opinion has changed since you’ve given her your seat on the Congregation.”

“Now, she’s fixed so many things. I don’t know how she did it. She even fixed Matthew.”

“Yes, I heard he’d been injured last year. Sarah was away for a long time because of it, I think.”

“Yes, but even before then. Matthew and I never got along before. He’s such a relentless idealist. It’s impossible to live up to his saintly standards. He literally gave the ascetics some of their ideas. After torturing himself for so long, he just was not someone I wanted to spend any time with. My father and his mate, Ysabeau were always trying to get him to enjoy life a bit. It just got on my nerves. That much introspection isn’t good for anyone.” Baldwin flicked a glance at Eloise. She didn’t seem to be disgusted by what he was saying. “I don’t really know much of the detail but I do know that from the moment I saw them together, I knew that Matthew would kill me a thousand times over before he let me harm a hair on Diana’s head.”

“Could he best you?” Eloise asked. Baldwin considered the centuries that Matthew had served as the de Claremont assassin.

“If it meant saving Diana? Matthew would wade through the blood of kings, queens, and emperors. He’d think nothing of eradicating any threat to his mate.” Baldwin said. He remembered the blood rage in Matthew’s eyes when Baldwin had asked if Diana was worth risking war.

“He does seem to be a very protective and attentive husband.”

“A hallmark of vampire mates.” Baldwin said. “Many of us have spent centuries searching for our mates. When we find them, we tend to be careful.” He considered how he felt about Eloise already. He could so easily imagine how Matthew felt whenever Diana so much as stubbed her toe. Baldwin would like nothing more than to lock Eloise up somewhere safe forever and they weren’t even mated yet. “Will you come out to dinner with me tomorrow night?” He asked.

“Tomorrow is Sunday, Baldwin. I don’t go out when I need to work the next day.”

“Not even for an early supper?” He wheedled.

“No.”

“Next Friday then?”

“I’ll consider it.” Eloise agreed. “How long will you be in New York City? Isn’t your base Berlin?”

“I’ll be staying in Madison for now. I need to speak with Fernando.”

“That’s some conversation that will keep you in rural New York state all week.”

“Well, I want to do some shopping too.” Baldwin said deliberately.

“What on earth could you want to buy in Madison that you can’t get in New York or Berlin?”

“A house.”

“Why?” Eloise asked suspiciously.

“Because I want to spend time with you and get to know you.” Baldwin told her.

“We’ve been out on a few dates, Baldwin. You can’t just buy a house in Madison on the basis of that.”

“I need to be near you.” He insisted. She didn’t understand, yet.

“It’s too soon.” Eloise told him firmly. “Look, I am really enjoying your company and I do want to spend more time with you. But for you to buy a house is just crazy. Why not just get a hotel room if you must?” _Because when we finally mate, I want it to happen somewhere private in a space I control._

“I prefer to have my own spaces.” Baldwin said stiffly.

“You will not buy a house in Madison, Baldwin. I forbid it.” Baldwin pulled over the side of the road and got out of the car. Eloise watched him stride away and make a phone call, guessing that he’d already put things in motion and was now putting a stop to them. Sarah had been right. It was important to set firm boundaries when dealing with vampires. They were very pushy, it seemed. Imagine! Buying a house just so you could date someone.

Out of the car, Baldwin ran a hand through his hair and dialled Matthew’s number. “What is it, Baldwin?” Matthew asked. His voice was pitched low and he sounded very much like a contented vampire. The fact that Matthew wasn’t facing these challenges just made Baldwin angrier.

“I need you to buy a house in Madison. Today.”

“Why? Whenever we’re in Madison, we stay at the Bishop house.”

“Yeah, do it anyways.”

“If you want to stay, I’m sure Sarah will put you up.” Baldwin growled. He didn’t need a place to sleep. He needed a place where, when the time came, he could take his mate and be assured of privacy.

“Just buy a house, Matthew!” With that, Baldwin disconnected the call and walked to the passenger side of the car. Opening the door, he gently pulled Eloise out.

“I won’t buy a house, for now.” He promised. “But there’s something you need to understand.”

“Yes?” Eloise asked.

“I am not a human and I am not a witch.”

“I know that.” She said, reaching over to stroke his cheek.

“Now you need to know what that means. I have lived for twenty centuries, Eloise. I have never felt this way. The need to protect you, to be near you…” He sighed. “I don’t want to scare you but I also cannot be what I am not.”

“Baldwin, this is going too fast for me. I’m fifty-five years old! I’ve made my own way in the world. I have my own business and a life full of friends and activities. I’m set in my ways.”

“I was too, until I met you.” Giving her time to refuse, he slowly approached for a kiss. His lips found hers. She tasted of mint and Eloise. “Be patient with me, please.” He whispered as he pulled away. “I will try to be less autocratic but do not ask me to be less protective.” Eloise nodded slowly. She was no weaver but she didn’t need to be. Baldwin was struggling with his control. She felt safe with him but clearly, she needed a crash course in vampire etiquette. She’d call Sarah tonight.


	6. Complication Upon Complication

Fernando was waiting for Baldwin with a large glass of wine when he pulled into the driveway. Diana had called an hour ago telling them to expect him and Eloise had called Sarah the instant he’d left her house. The two witches were still on the phone though he could hear Sarah ending the conversation.

“Hello Baldwin.” Sarah greeted, stepping out onto the porch.

“Hello Sarah. Matthew texted me. He said I was welcome?” She nodded.

The head of the de Claremont family looked like he’d been through the wringer. His hair was standing on end and his shirt was wrinkled. His usual scent of cedarwood, oakmoss, and cardamom was nearly overpowering. She remembered Miriam explaining that one of the unmistakable clues that a male vampire had found a mate was that their natural scent became so strong that even humans noticed it. Apparently, it was only likely to get stronger until he could be properly mated.

Sarah led the way into the house, reflecting that at least when daemons had followed Diana around, she didn’t have to live with them. It had been tricky enough when Matthew was here with Miriam and Marcus. Having Baldwin in residence would not go unnoticed. Diana had warned Sarah that he was likely to stay a while.

It took three bottles of wine before Baldwin’s tension seemed to ease even a little. Sarah had left him and Fernando sitting on the porch and gone up to bed, heartily sick of hearing Baldwin complain about Eloise’s refusal to let him just take over her life. Vampires were a force of nature and Sarah could sympathise with her friend’s resistance. Heck, it wasn’t like Sarah’s life hadn’t been drastically affected from the moment Matthew de Claremont met Diana. Changing into her pjs, she slid into bed with thoughts of both Em and an upcoming visit with Agatha Wilson on her mind.

“What am I going to do, Fernando?” Baldwin asked. “She lives in a house that doesn’t even have an alarm system! And she point-blank refused to allow me to have one installed for her.”

“Women, especially warm-blooded ones, aren’t exactly my area of expertise.” Fernando told him. “Have you asked Matthew for advice? He seems to have managed quite well.”

“He seems to think this situation is hilarious.” Baldwin said darkly. “He almost died laughing when I told him that Eloise forbade me from buying a house in Madison.” To his credit, Fernando did not spit wine out his nose at that piece of information. Only Philippe had ever put limits on Baldwin. The thought of a helpless female telling him no was inconceivable. “I told her I could come with her to work tomorrow and make sure it was all safe and she wouldn’t let me do that either.”

“Really? Can you maybe see why she wouldn’t be keen to have an ancient vampire around when parents drop off their human children?”

“I don’t feed on children, Fernando. And anyways, that’s not the blood I’m craving.”

“Have you spoken to Diana about this?”

“No, why would I?” Baldwin asked, shocked. “I’m not going to talk to my _sister_ about mating!”

“Why not? By now she probably knows more about mating than you do. After all, she’s been mated for several years. And she certainly knows more about the proper way of courting a witch than you’re likely to figure out on your own.”

“No, I need to figure this out. I’ll order a report about Eloise. All I need is enough information and can plan a campaign.” Fernando pinched the bridge of his nose. The main effect of having Madison witches enter the vampire world were many more vampire headaches.

“I suggest that you feed. Craving her is bad enough, but if you’re hungry you’ll be likely to make worse decisions. There’s a stocked fridge in the stillroom and the local deer are good. Just don’t feed on the widow’s neighbours. She will certainly consider them off-limits.” Baldwin raised his glass and Fernando took himself off.

Scrolling through his contacts, he soon found Hamish Osborne’s number. He might be Matthew’s friend but he was also an absolute genius when it came to finding information. As he waited for the daemon to answer, he looked out onto the fields around the house. It was ridiculously vulnerable of course. And he couldn’t quite understand why there was a tree growing in the living room. Far in the distance he could see the glow of town but out here, it was easy to see the stars. He’d always liked stargazing. Someday, he’d do it with Eloise. He wondered if she knew her constellations.

“Baldwin?” Hamish answered.

“Hi Hamish. I need your help.” It wasn’t a request but Baldwin didn’t intend on accepting anything less than complete assistance.

“At three o’clock in the morning, I didn’t think this was a social call. What kind of help?”

“I need every bit of information you can find on Eloise Harrison. Financials, life history, everything.”

“The new witch representative on the Congregation?”

“Yes.” Hamish whistled. “What are you looking for, exactly?”

“Everything you can find. But be discrete.”

“Give me a day. I’ll get back to you.”

“Thank you.” Baldwin said quietly. “I’ll owe you for this.” The significance of having the head of the de Claremont family in his debt was not lost on him. The fact that it was Baldwin rather than Matthew who had contacted him was raising all sorts of intriguing possibilities. “Twenty-four hours, Hamish.”

“Of course.” Disconnecting the call, Baldwin looked at his phone. It was four in the morning in France, an hour later than in London. Matthew would probably be up but he wouldn’t appreciate it if Diana was woken by the phone. Baldwin certainly wouldn’t like his mate to be robbed of sleep. Frowning, he typed out a text message. A few minutes later, Matthew called him.

“How are you doing?” Matthew asked. It was not a question he would have asked before Diana. Matthew had always kept a close eye on Marcus but otherwise had been disinclined to worry about anyone. Diana, then Jack, and finally the twins had started changing him. Having the responsibility of being a sieur had accelerated the changes.

“She’s driving me crazy, Matthew. You can’t imagine how contrary she is!”

“Oh, I think I can.” Matthew said drily. He’d left Diana in bed and had been reviewing the latest data from the Yale lab when Baldwin’s message had come. His beloved witch tested his sanity regularly.

“She won’t let me do anything for her.”

“What have you been trying to do?” Matthew asked.

“Protect her. I took her out to dinner last night.”

“Yeah, we know. You made the front page of the local paper.” Baldwin groaned. “How did you think a helicopter landing in the middle of Madison would play out?”

“It was just the quickest way to get her to the restaurant. But then she insisted that it would wake the neighbours if we returned last night. She seems to care about everyone and their cousin!” Matthew heard the unsaid words, _except me_.

“Baldwin, warm-bloods live by different rules.” Matthew explained calmly. “She is protecting you from their criticism.”

“I don’t care what strangers think.”

“They aren’t strangers to her. They are her community. You can’t just pluck her out of her world and into yours.” Baldwin growled. “Believe me, you don’t want to overwhelm her if you can avoid it. Warm-bloods can be funny and they don’t like being hunted. If you make her feel like you are hunting her, she’ll reject you.”

“She can’t!”

“She can and she will. Your behaviour may be perfectly normal and expected for a vampire who has found his mate but to a warm-blood it feels predatory and frightening. Right now, you are making yourself look like a danger to her. Give her time. Court her.”

“She says she won’t go out to dinner with me until the weekend.” Baldwin admitted.

“Then give her the time and space that she needs. Go back to New York City. Send her some flowers if it makes you feel better. But no real estate!”

“What if another vampire discovers her?” Matthew thought of what Diana had told him. There was no risk that Eloise would end up with another vampire but if Baldwin had that knowledge, he’d become even more autocratic. “Ask her to add Fernando’s number to her phone. If she needs anything, she can call him. He can watch out for her. Then, you can drive back on Friday and take her out to a local restaurant like a normal person instead of a vampire king.”

“She needs a better car, too.” Baldwin muttered. “Hers is this little hatchback. I don’t like it.”

“Flowers. No automotive gifts until after at least the fifth date.” Matthew told him firmly. “Honestly, Baldwin. Who have you been courting all these centuries?”

“I wasn’t courting. I was fucking. It’s a much simpler transaction.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t use the word _transaction_ with Eloise if you know what’s good for you.”


	7. Vampires Make Bad House Pets

“Good morning, _mon coeur._ ” Matthew murmured, dropping a kiss on the base of Diana’s spine as he pulled back the covers.

“Mmmm…. Too early. Come back to bed.” She grumbled. The room was already getting warm and the prospect of cuddling up to Matthew’s coolness was irresistible. Instead, he shocked her with a firm swat to her backside.

“Not today. Get up.” Diana yelped and gave him a gimlet stare. He chuckled unrepentantly. Grumbling, she swung her feet to the floor and stood up. Matthew caught her arm and turned her away, staring intently at her hips. Looking down, Diana could see that her witch’s shimmer was particularly bright today and that it made the dark smudges on her hips stand out. Glancing at the mirror across the room, she could see that their activities yesterday had left her with bruises the shape and size of Matthew’s hands.

“It’s okay! They don’t hurt.” Diana assured him. Matthew was always so careful with his preternatural strength but they had become so caught up in their passion that he’d held her tighter than he usually did. He smirked.

“Even if they did. Those are the kinds of marks I _like_ seeing on you.” He purred. Placing his hands over the marks, he pulled her close for a kiss. When he released her, she snuggled up against him for a moment.

“Marthe will hear us.”

“No, she won’t. I took the children up to Sept-Tours this morning. We’re alone.” Matthew said. Diana gaped at him.

“You’re insatiable!” She accused.

“Yes, but that’s not the reason that I arranged for us to have some privacy. Put these on and meet me in the courtyard.” Matthew said, pointing to underwear, leggings, and a workout top on the dresser.

“What do you have in mind?” Diana asked, obediently slipping on the comfortable clothing.

“You reminded me of something yesterday.” He told her. “I have been lax in seeing to your training. That stops now.”

“But Matthew, Benjamin and Knox are dead. Satu’s been spellbound and –“

“Do you also need a refresher on vampire wife basics?” Matthew challenged. Diana shook her head. “I mean to ensure you are always prepared to deal with danger. Do you want to use your safe word?”

“Non, sieur.” Smiling, he dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Outside in ten minutes.”

When Diana joined Matthew in the courtyard, he’d changed his clothes. Despite the heat, he was wearing snug leather pants very much like the ones he’d worn for horseback riding in the sixteenth century. He’d forgone wearing a shirt, perfectly replicating her fantasy vision.

“Do you remember when we went to Madison the first time, and you were whining about the witchcraft lessons?” He asked. Diana scowled at him. He’d been decidedly unsympathetic, informing her that like it or not, she _would_ learn about it. And she hadn’t been whining. “I told you that you needed to learn to use even the weapons you don’t like.” Diana nodded. “After Chelm, I needed time to heal but I’m as recovered as mere rest a little bit of casual exercise will get me. Now it’s time we both get back to sharpening our skills in case we ever need them. So today, I’ll pit my vampire fighting skills against your magic. Think of it as a game of supernatural tag.”

“That sounds intriguing.” Diana allowed. She remembered the night in the woods near Bishop house when Matthew had goaded her into using flight to escape him. She had never been in any danger, of course, but she’d enjoyed the exhilaration of being pursued by a top predator. Glancing at the courtyard gate, she commanded the old drawbridge to lift, closing them in. Unexpected visitors and curious spectators would not be able to interrupt them. Matthew smiled at her precaution.

Next, she cast a protection spell around Matthew. She was all for playing hard but magic could really hurt a vampire. Though he didn’t know it, he would not be harmed, even accidentally, in their play. “I do think that looking all disreputable-vampire-prince-on-the-prowl gives you an unfair advantage though.” Diana said casually. With a flick of magic, she changed her attire. Suddenly, she was out of the workout clothes. Matthew’s eyes widened as he took in her appearance. Like the white queen chess piece that had helped guide them to the past, Diana wore a drapey skirt that hugged her hips with gravity-defying magic. She had a quiver at her back that was secured with a golden chain that crossed her bare torso from shoulder to waist. The effect was to make the mark of Matthew’s teeth on her breast stand out. The effect on her vampire was satisfyingly immediate. His leather trousers were clearly uncomfortably snug and his eyes darkened. Matthew let out a sound that was somewhere between a purr and a growl. Diana shivered and watched as he began stalking her.

For someone who was able to move faster than the eye could see, Matthew was also remarkably adept at moving so slowly that she almost didn’t notice. She would have happily watched him all day but knew that wasn’t the game he had in mind. She wanted to see how very little magic was required to win this game. Calling on the air, she lifted Matthew just high enough off the ground that he lost purchase. Diana made a point of walking back a few feet while he figured out what he needed to do. Air is much less viscous than water which prevented him from approximating swimming to move. He’d have to find another way.

It didn’t take long for Matthew to recalibrate his thinking. Rather than pushing against the ground directly, he used all of his vampire strength to push off against the cushion of air that Diana had created. Like a pinball, he bounced off the wall and accelerated towards her. It was undirected momentum though. He had no way to change course, mid-way. Diana easily side-stepped and watched as he bounced off the opposite wall of the courtyard. To her surprise, he laughed in delight.

“You’ve turned this stone fortress into a bouncy castle!” Amused, she watched her ancient husband play with air like a child. His delight was so mesmerising that she missed when he shifted from playing to hunting. A single, well-executed bounce had him launched at her at speed. Before she realised what was happening, he’d wrapped an arm around her and lifted her off her feet. Diana felt him quickly adjust his position so that it was his back that would take the brunt of contact if she lost her concentration. She didn’t and they bounced together off the wall. Matthew’s teeth rasped along her collarbone but didn’t break the skin. Instead, they left a pink streak, like a cat scratch. “One point to the vampire.” He told her. “What else have you got?” Diana allowed them both to slowly return to the ground.

“No magic. No talking.” She whispered. He kissed the tip of her nose and nodded, getting to his feet. Reaching down, he offered her his hand. When she took it, he pulled her to her feet and spun her in his arms like he had when she’d asked him how she’d taste. “You couldn’t stop me, and I couldn’t stop myself.” He murmured against her neck. They both knew that wasn’t true anymore. Her magic could easily protect her from him or any other vampire if she chose to use it. And the night in Madison when he’d been dying had shown them both that he could stop himself if it meant keeping her safe.

Still, the words gave her an idea. Matthew wanted her to hone her skills and the best way to do that was a taste of danger. Looking down, she saw one of the threads that wrapped around them. Diana had only really understood what it was when she saw similar threads connecting her and Matthew to their children. Similar threads had been visible around Philippe and Stephen Proctor when they’d met in the past but Diana hadn’t understood what they were then. Protectiveness. Giving the thread a good yank, she knew that both she and Matthew were instantly on high-alert. There was no real danger but the sense that there was demanded an immediate response.

Matthew growled and his hold on her tightened. _Maybe that was a bit too hard a yank,_ Diana thought. She gave Matthew a moment to gain control. When his hold lightened slightly, she slipped out of his reach and raced towards the stairs that led up to the kitchen. Without magic, there was no hope that she’d outrun Matthew but she was still startled when he skipped the stairs altogether and instead jumped ahead of her. She squeaked and her foot just missed the step. Pain exploded as her shin smashed against the rock edge. Matthew hissed and caught her as she pitched forward.

In an instant, he had propped her up on the kitchen counter like he did with the twins when they sustained the various cuts and contusions that were part-and-parcel of childhood. With little flesh to cushion her skin, it had been cut between the rock and bone. It was bleeding and beginning to puff up a bit. Matthew dampened a cloth and carefully cleaned the area. Diana watched him work with interest.

This was another facet of her complex husband: the healer. He worked quickly and carefully, applying all of his skill and knowledge to this small task. To Diana’s surprise, he didn’t reach for a dressing even though the blood continued to well in the cut. After a moment, he looked up at her and quirked a smile.

“Thank you for indulging my need to fuss, _mon coeur_. But now that I am certain it is not serious, and has been properly cleaned, would you please use magic to seal it?” Leaning forward, Diana kissed him and wished the cut closed. When they parted, all that was left was a thin scab and a bruise.

In Madison, Baldwin could only wish Eloise would let him give her self-defence lessons. Instead, she’d stuck to her guns about not going out to dinner and working on her business.

When the first part of Hamish’s finding landed in Baldwin’s email, he was incensed. “She’s barely profitable!” Baldwin roared into the phone at Hamish after reviewing her financials.

“The business is still viable, Baldwin. And she owns both her house and the nursery outright.”

“Both of those combined are worth less than my car.” Baldwin growled.

“I suspect they are worth a great deal more to her than your car is to you.” Hamish pointed out. “This is her life’s work, Baldwin. It matters to her.”

“Don’t tell me what is important to my mate.” Baldwin snapped. He could buy her a thousand businesses to equal it if she wanted. She didn’t need to stay in pokey little Madison. Confident he could make her see that, Baldwin disconnected and headed for the door.

Eloise was cleaning out the rabbit hutch in her garden when Baldwin appeared. “Good morning, Baldwin.” She greeted, pulling off her work gloves. She saw his nose twitch and supposed she probably stank of animal waste to the vampire. Reminding herself that it was only a problem because he was showing up unannounced, she shrugged away the concern.

“I thought I’d come by and see if you needed help today.” He offered. Eloise’s mind quickly considered all the chores that required her attention still. The various pens where she housed cats and dogs while fostering them all needed to be cleaned but each one contained small animals that would be very tempting, but not satisfying, to a vampire. She didn’t know if Baldwin was feeling peckish but she had a responsibility to protect them.

“That’s very kind, but I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Why do you trouble yourself with so many animals?” He asked, looking around. She had fewer animals in residence at the moment but it was still more than most people had. Baldwin might be a grown man and ancient vampire, but he was clearly only now taking an interest in how other creatures lived. She was inclined to help him learn about being a good person.

“Because, they need care and support and I can provide it.”

“Someone else could do it. If you’d like, I can hire someone –“

“Stop right there, Baldwin. You are not hiring anyone to live my life for me. I take in foster animals because it provides a sense of purpose. I’ve never had children of my own and whether it is the children I care for at the nursery or the animals I care for here, they provide a sense of purpose to me.”

“I can provide a purpose.” He said smoothly. Eloise considered him for a moment. She really liked him. She liked how she felt when she was with him. She liked how he was unfailingly attentive too. But he had clearly missed out on a few key life lessons over the years.

Uncomfortably aware of the neighbours’ eyes on them, Eloise led him to the table and chairs on the patio. “Sit. I need a cup of tea. Then we’ll talk. Would you like a cup, or maybe coffee?”

“Do you have wine?” Baldwin asked.

“You are not drinking wine at ten o’clock in the morning on a Sunday, Baldwin!” She said firmly. “Especially not since you’re driving.” Baldwin opened his mouth to protest but then ceded the victory with a nod.

“Coffee then, please. Black. No sugar.”

“Very well. Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Returning to the house, Eloise washed her hands and considered changing her clothes. She decided against it. She still needed to do some of the pens and she didn’t want the neighbours to notice her changing several times in the same day.

She needed to figure out how to manage Baldwin. His company was intoxicating and deeply flattering. She’d never drawn much attention from men. She was too tall, too plump, and too intelligent to appeal to most human males. Her last name was enough to intimidate magical males and, until the Covenant had been repealed, had made her off limits to any other creatures.

The turbulence in the creature world for the last two years had propelled Diana and Matthew to super-celebrity status and their families with them. The Bishop-Clairmont scion was a branch of the de Claremont family though and so, like it or not, Baldwin and the rest of his family had also become internationally recognized.

One of the issues that the Congregation was currently dealing with was how to help creatures cope with the relentless demands of humans for assistance. Though there were fewer than a million creatures alive at the moment, there were over seven billion humans who resented their own limitations. Suffering had always been part of living, even for vampires. Humans were now demanding that vampires save humans afflicted with any illness or injury. A real conflict was brewing over the absolute refusal of vampires to turn children, even if it meant letting them die. Vampires did not turn children for a reason but humans refused to accept any reason as adequate in the face of parents grieving. The fact that Diana and Matthew had conceived Bright Born twins was making the argument against vampire children even more difficult to defend.

As far as Eloise could tell, Baldwin’s coping strategy was to throw up insurmountable barriers between himself and anyone who might push him to actively make a terrible decision. The only chink in his defences was her. For whatever reason, there was a connection between them that he couldn’t simply walk away from. Instead, he was trying to pull her behind his barricade as quickly as he could.

Arranging the cups on a tray with a plate of shortbread and some candied nuts, she carried everything out to the patio. The first night of the Congregation meeting, when they’d gone out to dinner with Diana and Matthew, Eloise had been charmed to see the two ancient vampires raving about the sugar-coated pecans that Diana made from Em’s recipe. Eloise had made a batch as soon as she’d gotten the recipe from Sarah. She’d also decided to add a bit of cardamom since it reminded her of Baldwin’s scent.

Sitting down across from him, Eloise stirred milk and sugar into her tea. “Help yourself.” She told Baldwin with a wave. He smiled and reached out for a few pieces of pecans. Popping the treat into his mouth, Eloise was surprised at how tangible his pleasure was. She was no weaver but whenever something pleased Baldwin, she felt a ripple over her skin.

“Now then…” She began. “I think we need to set a few boundaries, Baldwin.”

“What kind of boundaries?” He asked, manifestly opposed.

“The kind that help you stay firmly in the _fun to be with_ realm rather than the _stay away from me, you psycho_ realm.” He blinked.

“Why are you so resistant?” He asked. “Is it just innate in witches to try to make vampires crazy? Diana is always forcing Matthew to let her do dangerous things. Now that I’ve met you, I’m amazed that he hasn’t gone insane as a result.”

“Dangerous, how?” Eloise asked. She’d known Diana Bishop all her life and while she’d been a handful, she’d become excessively cautious after her parents died. It was something that Sarah, Em, and Eloise had long tried to ease. Even now, Diana was known for her calm-headed and cautious approach to solving problems. It was as much that characteristic than her de Claremont blood that allowed her to lead the Congregation.

“Cycling in Oxford rather than letting Leonard drive her to the library. Rowing on the moat at Les Revenant without wearing a life jacket. Turning her phone off when she doesn’t want to be disturbed.” He paused. “That last one might be Matthew. But it’s still irritating. And she doesn’t answer emails.”

“Not to minimise the grave danger associated with having a bit of fun or falling behind in correspondence,” Eloise began. “I have lived my whole life without suffering any catastrophic injuries. A little bit of risk is what makes life fun, Baldwin.”

“You aren’t immortal, Eloise. Warm-bloods are fragile. People die every day. I refuse to allow you to take risks.”

“Allow me?” Eloise asked softly. “You don’t _allow_ anything, Baldwin. I am an adult and I make my own decisions. Now, I understand that you believe I may be your mate and that that is a big deal for vampires. But know this: your needs do not displace mine. I have told you before. I like you and from what I saw between Diana and Matthew certainly suggests that there are some very nice aspects to mating with a vampire. But I have always lived my life in a way that served my sense of purpose. No one, not even the most devoted vampire, will convince me to turn my back on who I am or what is important to me. I have no interest in an eternal, but incomplete, life. I want to make a difference. For the better.” Baldwin scowled before popping a few more pecans in his mouth.

“You’re barely scraping by.” He told her. Eloise realised that he’d been looking into private information that was none of his business. Counting to ten in her head, she forced herself to hold on to her control.

“That’s boundary number one. You will not invade my privacy. My finances are my business. Not yours.” Baldwin’s expression clearly said he disagreed. “Baldwin.” Eloise said his name in exactly the tone that warned toddlers they were on very thin ice. “You will keep your nose out of my affairs unless and until I ask you to do otherwise.” He nodded once but Eloise was starting to know him better. “And you will respect the intention, not just the letter, of this boundary. I don’t give ultimatums but let me be perfectly clear, if you persist, I will view it as demonstration that you cannot be trusted and this will end.” The thought that she would deem him as someone she could not trust horrified him.

“I won’t do it again.” He promised.

“Good.” Smiling at him, she sought to ease the sting of her rebuke slightly. “I’m a sixties girl, Baldwin. As a feminist, I have always considered controlling my finances as a fundamental aspect of my freedom and equality.” Baldwin snorted at that.

“De Claremont women manage their own finances, Eloise. They have for many, many centuries. Ysabeau insists on it.”

“Ah, yes. I’ve heard about your mother.”

“My step-mother.” Baldwin corrected. “Philippe sired me. Ysabeau was his mate. She sired Matthew though.”

“You aren’t close, I gather.” Baldwin looked away.

“Vampire families are complicated.” He said quietly. “Grudges and rivalries can last a long time. But things are changing now. Now that I have found you, I find that the distinction I made between my sire and his mate may have been without substance. Certainly, it’s become difficult to see where Matthew ends and Diana begins. And since I’ve met you, I would struggle not to murder anyone who suggested you were somehow extraneous.” Eloise blinked. As romantic declarations went, being elevated to something more than _somehow extraneous_ seemed tepid. Nevertheless, she knew that while she was adjusting to make room for this vampire in her life, finding her was forcing him to reconsider opinions he’d held for hundreds, or possibly thousands, of years. Allowances would need to be made.

“I don’t want to suffocate you.” He told her. “Diana, Matthew, Fernando, and even Sarah have all told me that what seems like a normal and natural impulse to me may feel frightening and predatory to you.”

“Predatory? Yes. Frightening? Not so far.” Eloise admitted.

“And yet you are trying to set boundaries with me. I don’t like it.”

“I know. But it’s what I need and from what I understand, if we are mates, ensuring my needs are met will be imperative to you.” Baldwin nodded once.

“Go back to New York, Baldwin. I am busy next weekend with the Coven bake sale. But the weekend after that, I’ll drive down and we can spend the weekend together in the city.” Baldwin pouted, reminding Eloise of one of her charges. For a vampire king, he was absolutely adorable when he sulked.

“Very well. On one condition.”

“Which is?”

“You will add me and Fernando to the contacts on your phone. At the first hint of anything being wrong, you will text us to let us know. Fernando can be here in a matter of minutes and I will want to be kept informed.”

“Very well.”

“Text, not a call.” Baldwin insisted. “If there was a vampire near enough for you to sense, then they’d be able to hear what you said.”

“I give you my word.” Eloise promised. “I’ll even send you a message if there’s no trouble. Now give me a kiss and get moving.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eloise has a treat for Baldwin and Jack has a question for his parents.

Monday morning found Baldwin pacing along the glass wall of his office. As he’d left Madison, he’d told Hamish to destroy any further information he’d found. Eloise would never even know about that, but he couldn’t stand the idea of breaking a promise to her. He had given her his word that he wouldn’t investigate her, and he wouldn’t. He’d also promised to stay in New York City for twelve interminable days while he waited for her to join him. The story in the Oneida Dispatch had been picked up by the national press and Baldwin had watched enraged as Eloise was forced to address the press to tell them to leave. She’d also texted him to say that having any vampire try to disperse the journalists would make matters worse so he was to let her handle it.

It turned out that the witches of the Madison coven were more than able to protect their own. With an hour, not only had the journalists left, but any mention of his visit to Madison had disappeared into the aether. He’d have to figure out how they’d done it without resorting to murder or, his personal favourite, extortion to achieve the result.

In the outer office, he could hear his secretary speaking to someone. The smell of vanilla, cardamom, and pecans tickled his nose and he crossed to the door. “Don’t touch that.” He commanded when she would have moved it from the edge of her desk where the mailboy had left it. Collecting the package, he withdrew to his desk to enjoy his treasure. The outer package had been handled by several people and Baldwin tore it away without care. Inside, he found a pretty jar with a label on a string. Eloise had sent exactly the message he needed to see. _I’m thinking about you too_. _A pecan for every hour apart._ Opening the jar, he froze. She’d used the same recipe as the ones she’d served him the day before but clearly, she’d learned something about vampires and their sense of smell. She’d clearly held each pecan in her hand, lifting them one by one as she counted them and dropped them in the jar. Her scent joined the nutty and sweet ones. Popping a pecan into his mouth, he carried the jar to his office vault. Taking out his phone, he snapped a picture and added only a few words: protected and cherished. Satisfied, he returned to his work.

Diana peeked in the oven. Matthew had taken Rebecca, Philip, and Jack hunting so none of them would need to feed tonight. Diana had decided on a carb-o-palooza of a meal. Rich mac and cheese topped with all of her favourite pizza toppings and covered with garlicky breadcrumbs. Vampire husband or not, she was in the mood for something with kick. She’d be nice and cover up the smell with some of that mint chip ice cream she’d hidden in the back of the freezer.

“Did you have fun today?” She asked, knowing full well that Jack was happiest when he was with them. He nodded but looked away. “Jack?” She asked, pouring out three glasses of wine.

“Thanks mum.” He managed, taking one of the glasses.

“You have something on your mind.” Diana said softly. Even without being able to see the threads hanging off him, she’d have known her son was troubled.

“Spit it out, Jack. You’ve been choking on it all day.” Matthew said as he joined them. He dropped a kiss on Diana’s lips before reaching for the oven gloves.

“It’s nothing.” Jack muttered, taking the other two glasses to the table.

“No, it’s not.” Diana said, squeezing his shoulder as she passed him to take her usual seat. The usual custom was for the lady of the house to sit at the opposite end from the master who presided and one end. Matthew did not like her to be so far out of reach but also did not want her to relinquish her traditional due. So, she sat in the usual place and he took the seat at her left. No one was in any doubt, ever, that Matthew was presiding, no matter where he sat.

Ready to tuck into a cheesy, carby mess, Diana rolled her eyes when Matthew placed a plate in front of her. Fully half of the plate was taken up with a salad of baby spinach and cherry tomatoes. Matthew had drizzled a homemade dressing and a sprinkling of pine nuts on it. Catching his hand as he withdrew, Diana kissed his knuckles and released him with a smile. _Imagine an ancient vampire worrying about veg intake. That’s adorable._

“So… I’ve been thinking.” Had anyone else in the family started that way, they would have been teased that it was a dangerous activity. Jack’s lingering insecurities were always managed with much more care by his parents. “I would like to…” He paused then tried again. “I was wondering if you would maybe allow me to…” The next attempt began even more hesitantly. “You must tell me if you don’t want me to…”

“Jack!” Matthew interrupted. “Just tell us what it is you want to do.”

“I’d like to apply to university to train as an art therapist.” He blurted.

“That’s a great idea!” Diana said, reaching over to squeeze his hand. Jack visibly braced himself before meeting Matthew’s gaze.

“I think you’re exactly the kind of person who can help others use art to overcome challenges, son.”

“I’ve been looking at programs.” He said softly. “There’s a good one in Oxford.”

“That’s perfect.” Diana insisted. “That way you could stay at home.” Matthew squeezed her hand, silently telling her to be quiet. They all knew that after five centuries of separation, the two years they’d had Jack back had barely begun to heal his wounds. He was nowhere near ready to leave the security he’d found with them. Jack would live with his parents for at least a few more decades, or possibly centuries. This suited his parents down to the ground.

“I think I could only get in using the creature application route.” He said softly. One of the consequences of creatures coming out into the open was that schools had introduced a pathway for creatures to enter academia even when their skills and knowledge were not documented through traditional academic records. As a vampire, Jack would need a letter of support from his sieur.

“That won’t be a problem.” Matthew said quietly. “All of your identification now confirms you as Jack Bishop-Clairmont. And you surely don’t need to ask whether or not I’d write the letter of support?”

“No. I know you would.” Jack never doubted Matthew but he always doubted himself. “You and mum are on the faculty though. What if the program is too hard and I embarrass you?” Matthew nodded towards Diana’s rapidly cooling food, urging her to eat, without looking away from Jack. Her stomach growled as if to thank him for the command. Releasing Jack’s wrist, Diana picked up her fork and started eating. As was often the case, parenting Jack was mostly about helping him off-load his self-doubts onto Matthew.

“You won’t.” Matthew said calmly. “If nothing else, between us, Diana and I have some experience in developing solid study habits. We’ll help to keep you on track if needed but I am confident that you’ll be just fine.” Relieved, Jack managed a smile. “To our son, the future art therapist!” Matthew said, raising his glass.

A few hours later, Diana and Matthew were getting ready for bed. They’d left Jack in the library, working on his application. They’d both promised to review his application essay before he sent it in. Diana had also promised to help him prepare for the admission interview. Her experience as a faculty advisor was much more recent than Matthew’s. As they’d chatted, it was clear Jack was excited by the challenge and they both knew that it would be a great choice for him.

“One of the many, many reasons I love you,” Diana told Matthew, “Is your unfailing ability to parent our children with only their best interests in mind.” Her praise was rewarded with a rare vampire blush.

“I’m not sure they would always agree.” Matthew said, thinking back to a few times when he’d had to enforce discipline. Jack still struggled and even though he was now Grand Master of the Knights of Lazarus, Marcus was occasionally on the receiving end of paternal displeasure. Their two eldest sons were far less prepared to try his patience than the twins were.

“I’m sure they would.” Diana insisted. The only person who occasionally struggled to accept Matthew’s absolute authority was Phoebe. Her love for Marcus sometimes made it difficult for her to accept when Matthew rebuked him. As a fledgling vampire and new vampire wife, she was having some struggles herself with the slightly medieval norms that were expected. Grand Master or not, Marcus deferred to his sieur’s authority in all things. By vampire standards, both Marcus and Phoebe were more like young teenagers than adults. Matthew looked out for them whether they liked it or not.

“I’m surprised Baldwin hasn’t called yet today.” Diana said as she approached Matthew. Smiling, she started unbuttoning his shirt.

“Shush! The last thing we need is to invite the universe to increase his calls. Honestly, Diana. I don’t think I’ll survive another vampire-witch mating. I am starting to see why Philippe arranged the covenant. It’s just not healthy for vampires to be this obsessed and witches certainly don’t make it easy.” Diana laughed and slid Matthew’s shirt over his shoulders. Flicking the button on his trousers free, she dropped to her knees. Her husband rested a hand on the top of her head as he stepped out of the fallen garment. Her fingers slid down, dragging his socks off his feet.

Feeling mischievous, she raked her nails along his instep. Matthew leapt back in surprise at the tickling sensation. “Come back here so I can do your other sock.” She ordered.

“No way.” Matthew retorted. In an instant, he yanked off the sock and swooped to pick her up. “If anyone is going to be tickled around here, it’s going to be you.” Tossing her on the bed, Matthew grabbed her ankle and wiggled his fingers menacingly. Diana squealed as he let out a maniacal chuckle and slowly brought his fingers to her instep.

There was no escape possible. Try as she might to use her other foot to push him away, his devilish fingers scraped and tortured her instep leaving her giggling helplessly. It wasn’t until she was laughing too hard to breathe properly that he stopped, lowering himself on top of her.

“I’ll get even for that.” She warned him. “When you’re least expecting it, Bam!”

“I’ll look forward to it.” Matthew said before lowering his mouth to her still-heaving breast.


	9. Mating Pangs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eloise and Baldwin face disaster - and Matthew won't let Diana interfere.

On Tuesday morning, Eloise woke up terrified and in pain. She had never felt anything like it in her life. Remembering Baldwin’s instructions to text if she had any worries, she barely managed to reach for her phone. She didn’t know how, but she sensed immense danger. Her skin was crawling and her joints all felt like someone had taken a hammer to them. The pressure in her head was so bad that it seemed to be crushing her eyes out of shape making it difficult to type anything. Finally, she gave up and just pressed down on the button to activate Siri. “Call Fernando. Need help.” Just that small effort was enough to trigger nausea.

She was still retching when Fernando arrived. He said something she couldn’t understand and pulled out his phone. “Baldwin.” He put the phone on speaker. “Eloise has mating pangs.” Baldwin’s swearing was eloquent. “I have you on speaker.” He added.

“Eloise?” Baldwin called softly.

“You’re in danger. I can feel it.” She moaned. She didn’t know how much time she had to warn him. She felt like she was going to die any second.

“No, my love. What you’re feeling is mating pangs. It’s a sickness that can affect vampires and their mates if they are separated.”

“No!” Eloise protested, though the sound of Baldwin’s voice was already helping.

“Yes. It is very like the decompression sickness that divers sometimes experience if they surface too fast.” Baldwin’s voice was calm but strained.

“Are you feeling it too?” Eloise asked.

“Yes.” Baldwin didn’t tell her that he’d started feeling it as soon as he’d pulled out of her driveway. He’d hoped that since they hadn’t yet truly mated, he would be the only one to feel it. Apparently not. “Listen to me, my love. You must let Fernando help you. I will take the helicopter but your pain will only get worse until I arrive.”

“No.” Eloise insisted. “Now that I know what it is, I can hold out until you arrive.”

“No. You can’t. I will not allow it.” Caught up in her pain, Eloise missed the change in her Baldwin. Gone was the charming vampire she’d known so far, replaced by the sieur who ruled with absolute authority. “Fernando!” The other vampire reappeared immediately. Clearly, he’d been waiting for Baldwin’s summons. “Take her to Sarah’s house, immediately. I am certain that Matthew will have stocked up the medicine cabinet. He will call you with instructions on how to ease her pain until I arrive.”

“No.” Eloise repeated. “I’ll be okay.”

“You’re in a puddle of your own vomit, whiter than the sheets, and in pain.” Fernando said deliberately, giving Baldwin a clear report. “Do not torture your mate by suffering needlessly.” She shot a dirty look at him.

“I’m no glutton for punishment, Eloise.” Baldwin told her. “Fernando, you have your orders. Call me after you’ve seen to my mate.” Hanging up, Baldwin immediately dialled Matthew.

“Baldwin.” He grumbled.

“Eloise has mating sickness.” Baldwin interrupted. “Fernando is with her. What can he do?” Matthew hissed.

“What is it?” Diana asked in the background.

“It’s been at least a century since I’ve heard of a case. There are no new treatments.” Matthew admitted. “How quickly can you get to her?”

“It will take another ten minutes for the chopper to get here, then a little over an hour to get out to Madison. I’ve told Fernando to take her to Sarah’s house.”

“I left a supply of morphine there.” Matthew told him. “That may help, but he’ll need to give her as little as possible to mitigate the pain without risking her choking on vomit in her sleep.”

“Matthew! What is going on?” Diana demanded again.

“How are you doing?” Matthew asked gently.

“I’m fine.” Baldwin answered grimly. They both knew that was a lie.

“I’ll call Marcus in case he has any ideas and then one of us will call Sarah with instructions. Keep us updated.”

“Thank you, Matthew.”

Matthew hung up the phone and looked at his wife. “Eloise and Baldwin have developed mating sickness.” He told her.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a rare condition that occurs with some vampire matings. It’s been at least a century since I’ve heard of a case. Eloise sent Baldwin away and he wanted to show her he would honour her wishes so he went.”

“Is it serious?”

“Very. It can be fatal to both of them.” Matthew admitted. He held up a hand as he called Marcus.

“Hey Matthew.”

“Marcus, Baldwin and his new mate have mating pangs. Fernando’s with her. Other than morphine, is there any other treatment we can provide? Baldwin is on his way to her but it’ll be over an hour.” Marcus swore.

“What drugs did you leave at Bishop House?” Marcus asked. Matthew rattled off the list from memory.

“I’ll text Fernando now and I’ll let you know how it develops.” Matthew hung up and ran a hand over his face. Maybe because Diana was a weaver, or maybe because of his blood rage, this was one crisis they’d never had to face. Looking at his mate, he could imagine what Baldwin was enduring and it was unthinkable.

“Matthew, talk to me!” Diana insisted.

“Mating pangs, or sickness, is similar to having decompression sickness and lockjaw at the same time. It is very rare but it can be fatal to both the vampire and mate. It is a sign of a particularly strong mating bond.”

“And Eloise has it.” Diana said softly.

“Yes. Baldwin is going to her now.”

“There’s more.” Diana said. Matthew ran a hand through his hair as he turned to the window.

“The only truly effective treatment is to mate.” Diana slid her arms around Matthew’s waist and rested her cheek against his back. “Baldwin will try to give her a choice, Diana. But if she refuses to be turned, they will both die.” Matthew caught her wrists when she would have pulled back, his hands deliberately covering the words he knew would appear there. “Do not ask the Book of Life what will happen.” He told her. “There is nothing we can do about their destiny.”

“But she needs to understand!” Diana said. “You know Baldwin won’t tell her that he could die if she doesn’t accept becoming a vampire!” Matthew pulled her gently so that she was pressed against his chest and he could hold her properly.

“I’m sorry, Diana. But I cannot allow you to take on this burden. Baldwin and Eloise must find their own way. If that is to death, then that is their fate to choose.”

“I’m his sister.” Diana reminded. He knew his wife’s protective streak was as strong as his but that wouldn’t budge him.

“And Louisa was mine. I would have killed her without a qualm had you not asked me to spare her life. If you come between Baldwin and Eloise in any way, he would come for you and kill me on the way. Eloise would not be alive to stop him. Leave them be.”

In Madison, Fernando had bundled Eloise in a blanket and driven her back to Sarah’s house. By the time he’d arrived, Marcus has called with instructions and Sarah had prepared everything he had requested in a little tray. “We need to get her out of those filthy clothes.” Sarah said, fussing over her friend. Fernando shook his head.

“I can smell Baldwin on that shirt. He’s touched it.” Fernando explained. “We need to touch her as little as possible before he gets here.” Taking the vials of drugs, he quickly prepared the medications according to Marcus’s instructions. “Eloise, I’m going to set up an intravenous drip with morphine and give you a shot of muscle relaxants and anti-nausea drugs.” He explained.

“No…”

“Listen to me.” He told her, crouching down to meet her eyes. “Baldwin will feel your pain. Drugs don’t work on a vampire so the _only_ way to ease his pain is to let me treat yours. He’ll be here soon and then you can argue with him.” When she nodded, Fernando quickly administered the drugs.

“Baldwin will be here soon.” He told Sarah once Eloise had succumbed to the effects of the drugs. “I will wait for him but could you drive Eloise’s car back to her house and make sure everything’s sorted there? The bed will need to be changed and the animals fed. If you could call the nursery school and tell them that she is unwell and will be away for a time, that would be very helpful.”

“More than a few days?” Sarah said, looking down at her friend.

“Yes. You should take a few changes of clothes. They will want to be alone and Baldwin will not move her until they have recovered.” Fernando told her. “Go quickly, Sarah. Baldwin will be a danger to anyone he finds when he gets here.”

“What about you?”

“I will leave as soon as I hear the helicopter approaching.” Fernando promised. “Now go. Quickly.” Nodding, Sarah hurried back down the stairs.


	10. Death is No Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is one of the more explicit chapters. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Talk to me, Marcus.” Baldwin commanded as he ran into the house and up the stairs.

“You’ll find a syringe on the dresser next to Eloise, Baldwin. It’s Naloxone. It reverses the effects of opioids including morphine. Inject one third of the dose into the line and wait five minutes. That may be enough to wake her up so you can ask her about turning. If she agrees, then the remaining effects will reduce how much pain she feels when you turn her. If not, administer a second third and again, wait five minutes. I’ve ordered blood to be delivered at her house. Fernando will bring it over once you confirm that he can.”

“Thanks Marcus. Gotta go.” Ending the call, he dropped the phone on the kitchen table and raced up the stairs. For once, his heart was beating faster than Eloise’s but he could still hear her. And smell the combination of her natural scent and the acrid remains of vomit. She was curled up on her side, her face a rictus of pain despite the morphine. As Marcus had said, a labelled syringe waited on the bedside table.

Baldwin’s hands were shaking as he pushed the needle into the port. He pressed down the plunger before kneeling beside her. Her joints were all swollen and her face was puffy. Stroking her hair away from his face, he whispered nonsense while he waited for her to wake up. The pain he was feeling was the worst thing he ever remembered. The thought that his warm-blooded mate was feeling the same thing was intolerable. He wanted to give her time. He wanted to let her make the decision on her own terms. But if she refused to be turned, he’d have to kill her to end her suffering.

If she died, he would too.

“Eloise, wake up my love.” He urged. She moaned, fighting the drugs in her blood stream to get back to him. “Wake up. I’m here.” Her eyelids lifted and she reached out, wincing as her swollen joints protested. “Shhh…” He took her hand in both of his and tried to massage the pain away.

“You look as bad as I feel.” She whispered. Baldwin couldn’t believe that even in her agony, she was aware of his pain.

“Eloise, I’m sorry my love. I wanted to give you more time but I can’t. The only way to end mating sickness is to fully mate with you. Will you allow me to turn you?”

“I won’t be me anymore?”

“I don’t know.” Baldwin admitted. “You may lose your magic. Matings between vampires and witches were forbidden for so long that we just don’t know. But, you may also retain your powers. Matthew told me about genetic markers and the fact that you keep some of your birth DNA. I just don’t know.”

“And your pain?” She asked.

“My pain will end with yours.” He promised, thinking it was a lie. Nothing would ever eradicate the memory of seeing her like this.

“Then do it.”

“Are you certain?” He asked.

“Yes. I never want to feel this again.” She told him. Texting Fernando to bring blood in an hour, he set the phone down.

Climbing into the bed beside her, he rolled her against him. Biting into his arm, he ripped his wrist open. “Keep your mouth closed as long as you can. I’ll drink your blood but it is loaded with morphine and this is the only way it can affect a vampire. I may lose consciousness. By then, the smell of my blood should be enough to make you drink.” Pulling her wrist up to his mouth, he bit his lip and swiped his anesthetising blood over her skin before biting down.

It was glorious.

He’d never tasted a blood so pure, so perfect. It was as if every tastebud had been slumbering, waiting for her.

To turn a warmblood into a vampire, he needed to drain as much of her blood as possible and then replace it with his own. As he drank, Baldwin received her memories. He saw her family, her childhood, discovered the many children and animals she had loved over the years. It was humbling. She was such a generous, loving woman. No wonder she’d doubted him. He could never aspire to being nearly as generous. He’d need to work hard to be worthy of her.

As the morphine-laden blood percolated in his system, he felt fuzzy and intoxicated. He could hear her heartbeat slowing and twisted his arm slightly against her mouth to encourage her to drink. For a moment, it seemed she might not but then her lips parted and she sucked hard. Her hands came up, holding his wrist to her mouth and she bit down on him, though it was not needed. He knew that it was an instinct to keep him where he was. He felt sleepy and relaxed as he watched his mate take in his blood.

Some day soon, he would teach her to drink from his heart vein. For now, he was content to see her gorge on him. She would not yet be able to understand the jumble of his memories that were flowing to her, that was something that came with experience.

Diana was pacing in the library, occasionally shooting Matthew a dark look. He had played his head-of-the-family card and told her that under no circumstances was she to use the Book of Life to spy on her brother. “You didn’t like when Em spied on you.” He reminded her. “Give Baldwin and his mate privacy. And give me your phone. I don’t want you sending Fernando or Sarah over to do your spying for you.” She’d handed her phone over with ill grace and was now muttering some very improper things about autocratic male vampires.

“At the very least, we should go out to Madison to provide support.” Diana finally exploded. Matthew carefully re-capped his Mont-Blanc fountain pen and stood up.

“That’s enough.” He told her. “Under no circumstances will you be permitted within fifty miles of newly reborn vampire. Eloise will be a danger to any warm-blood who crosses her path, even you. Do you remember what Phoebe told you about her thirst after she was turned?” Diana glared at him but nodded. “Now, Marcus, Phoebe, and Miriam are on their way to provide any needed support. And you are producing more adrenaline than you have since you were spellbound.”

“That’s why you sent Jack to Sept-Tours with the twins again.” Diana said.

“Yes.” Her cheeks burned as she realised that Matthew had had to protect their children from her runaway body chemistry. “I think it’s time I gave you something else to think about.” He announced. “I want you to go upstairs. Take your clothes off and wait for me with your eyes closed. I will be up shortly.”

“Oui sieur.” Diana murmured, implicitly agreeing to his plan. Matthew watched her go and returned to his desk. Opening the drawer, he took out his phone and read the messages from Marcus. They’d arrived at the Bishop house and were providing all the care that Baldwin and Eloise needed as a result of the mating sickness and Eloise’s turn.

Matthew smiled as made his way silently up to their room. Diana’s scent was already changing, her adrenaline dropping and her oxytocin rising. He had been delighted with their sex life before they discovered the submissive streak in Diana’s nature but knowing that this was an option to help his wife deal with emotional stress was an amazing gift.

She was standing completely nude in the middle of the room, facing the doorway. Her heart was still beating too fast and her levels of adrenaline were straining his control. There were no flashes of silver tonight. She was trying to be present but she was too preoccupied by what was happening in Madison. Going to his dresser, Matthew pulled out two silk ties. Returning to Diana, he used the first one as a blindfold. His wife needed sensory deprivation when she was like this. “Hands behind your back.” He ordered. “Focus, Diana.” He commanded when he noticed her blue fingers. He knew from experience that there was a very real risk of electric shocks. Binding her hands would have to wait. “Breathe and contain your magic.” Giving her time to get herself under control, Matthew added a few logs to the fire. Her body temperature would soon drop if he had anything to say about it. And he did.

“I want to try a bit of science.” He told her.

“Sexy science. I like that.” She said with a smile.

“Quiet.” He commanded. “I know you can feel me looking at you. I want to know how precisely.” He deliberately flicked a glance over her. “I want you to touch yourself where ever I look.” Over the makeshift blindfold, her eyebrows flew up. She was surprised but Matthew wasn’t done yet. His wife liked to be challenged and he knew just how to do it. “I don’t just want you to prove you know where I’m looking though. I want you to show me how you’d like to be touched in those places. How hard or soft. And I want you to tell me what you’re thinking while you do it.” Diana’s cheeks blazed at the prospect.

She was no prude and always responded to his touch but he knew that saying the words would not be easy. Everyone had insecurities. It wasn’t that Diana worried she would shock him but that she might hurt his feelings by asking for something he hadn’t already provided. She was always happy with what he did but he wanted to discover what he hadn’t done yet that his wife desired.

Matthew started by looking at the curve of her cheek and Diana’s hand came up, stroking the spot with the back of her fingers. When he looked at her lips, Diana ran her finger tips along the seam of her lips. To his surprise, her mouth opened slightly and she caught her finger between her teeth. So, she liked biting, did she?

Matthew’s eyes drifted down her neck and Diana tilted her head back, offering up her throat to him. His eyes moved lower to the notch at the top of her breast bone and along her collarbone. Her fingers were within a centimetre of where he was looking. He tested her, flicking suddenly in a different direction but her fingers unerringly followed.

He’d been so rivetted that he’d forgotten the instruction to tell him what she wanted to feel. His eyes drifted lower, to her right breast. “Tell me.” He commanded. Her right hand lifted her breast towards him as a blatant offering and her left hand played with her nipple and the areola. In the light of the fire, he could see the sheen of wetness that was migrating down her thigh. He could smell it too. The effect on him was no less electrifying.

“I want to feel your mouth on me.” She whispered. Suddenly, her hand stiffened and her fingers left angry red scratches on the tender flesh. Matthew’s gaze flickered to the other breast and the mark his teeth left when he drank from there. Diana shook her head at him and waited. When he looked away from his bite, she resumed the game but would not touch the mark of his bite.

“Why?” He asked.

“I don’t want to be touched there by anything or anyone but you.” She whispered. “Not even me. It would feel sacrilegious.” That was a reason Matthew was prepared to accept. He continued the game, moving lower. Diana was trembling as his gaze reached her navel. Silently, Matthew walked around her, watching her fingers glide over her skin. He took in every detail of her movements. While he stood behind her, he quickly removed his own clothing.

Again, when they passed over her lower back, just over her spine, Diana’s fingernails scratched her skin. There was one patch she barely touched. “A sensitive spot?” Matthew asked, carefully cataloguing the spot. Everyone had these neurological quirks: spots that were just wired differently.

“A weird spot.” She confirmed. Matthew made a mental note even as his eyes continued their exploration. Diana liked having her bum touched. He knew that well. Still, watching her hands drift over the skin there told him a lot. When she suddenly lifted her hand and smacked down hard enough to leave a hand print, Matthew chuckled.

“Well, that’s important information for me to have.” He commented. Moving back to her front, he took her hand and guided her to the bed. Her free hand reached up for the tie at her eyes but he stopped her. “No, leave it.” He ordered, guiding her onto the bed. “We’re not quite done.” Moving her feet together close to her bottom, he nudged her knees apart. Her thighs were gleaming in the fire light. “Show me this, too.” He ordered softly. He watched her fingers drift hesitantly down between her legs and start playing with herself. Though speech was beyond her, she hid nothing from him as she showed him exactly how she would like to be touched. Matthew was fascinated and would have happily watched her all night but shivers started rippling along her skin.

“Please, sieur.” She begged, obviously needing his touch. Matthew pulled her hand away and lifted her legs over his shoulders. As he brought his mouth to her, her legs clenched around him even as her hands speared into his hair, demanding harder contact. Chuckling, Matthew brought his wife to orgasm. If he’d been human, he would have suffocated before she let him take a breath.

When she was done, he slid up her body and slid the blindfold from her eyes. Her eyes were wet but with tears, only, not witch water. “Your turn.” He dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Not tonight.” He told her. “Tonight, I got just what I needed.”

“Will you drink?” She asked softly. “Please?” Understanding that she needed him to share her thoughts, he lowered his teeth into her heart vein. His brain exploded with the rush of love and security she was feeling. The traces of adrenaline mixed with oxytocin and dopamine that left him feeling intoxicated. “Thank you.” She said simply.

“I love you, Diana.”

“I love you too, Matthew.”


	11. Baby Sips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Housebreaking a new vampire is not for the faint of heart.

Baldwin woke up feeling battered in a way that he hadn’t felt since his early days of training as a Roman legionary. He could feel Eloise in his arms. Her body was relaxed for now. _No blood sickness then._ Baldwin took a deep breath. The two most dangerous afflictions that could strike a warm-blood were mating sickness which they’d felt, and blood sickness which happened when a warm-blood rejected vampire blood. He hadn’t even considered the possibility before but now realised that he could have killed her simply by trying to save her.

He could hear Miriam, Marcus, and Fernando downstairs. They were chatting quietly as they waited for him to request anything he or Eloise might need. Sniffing the air, he realised that his mate was still caked in dried sick.

Sitting up, he did a quick inventory of her state. Her body had done most of the recovery work from the mating pangs but it had also endured a brutal transformation at the same time. She needed time to adjust. Of all of them, Phoebe was the most recently turned warm-blood. Miriam had sired her. And Marcus knew only too well how hard it was to stand-by while your mate adapted to being a vampire. They were all, technically, part of Matthew’s clan now; not Baldwin’s. But Matthew had sent the best vampires for the job. Shifting carefully, Baldwin eased himself out of the bed and dropped a kiss on Eloise’s temple before heading down the stairs for advice.

“How are you?” Marcus asked, giving him a rather clinical once-over.

“Better.” Baldwin admitted.

“Good. We took some blood samples from both of you while you were sleeping.” Miriam said, surprising him. He couldn’t believe he’d slept through having anyone so close to his mate after what had happened. “We’ll check them against the samples you’d both previously given for research. And see if we can’t figure out why you had it so bad.” Baldwin nodded.

“It’s a question Matthew’s lab might be able to answer. And potentially, it might facilitate identifying particularly strong mate pairs if there’s a genetic component.”

“Miriam, how soon can I move Eloise to Sept-Tours?” The three vampires blinked at him.

“Not any time soon.” Miriam told him.

“I want her to adjust to being a vampire somewhere secure.” Baldwin said.

“I understand that. But taking her to Sept-Tours, even if there wasn’t all the over-stimulation risks of the journey itself, is a bad idea. You can’t take a newly turned vampire that close to Matthew’s warm-blooded mate or children. Both of you are a serious danger to each other’s mates at the moment.” Baldwin thought about that for a minute. Newly reborn vampires were notoriously unstable and Eloise could easily become confused by being near Diana. They’d known each other Diana’s whole life. Eloise had been a maternal presence but now she would struggle to separate any lingering emotion from her hunger. Diana could defend herself but any threat from Eloise, even accidental, could trigger Matthew’s blood rage. “Have you forgotten Eleanor?” Miriam asked softly.

“No. You’re right. We will need to stay here. For now, I’ll feed Eloise.” Though it was normal for a new vampire to be fed by their maker for a few days after turning. It minimized the risk of rejection. Nevertheless, Baldwin would need to wean Eloise soon. Unlike a non-mated maker, he would continue to exchange blood with her forever.

“Fernando helped me black out the windows to the attic room while you were sleeping.” Marcus told him. Baldwin nodded.

“I noticed. I’ll go back up and clean her up.”

“No showers.” Miriam and Phoebe said at the same time. Phoebe deferred to her mother.

“A tepid bath and for no more than ten minutes.” Miriam insisted, nodding approvingly at Phoebe. It suddenly struck Baldwin how complex vampire families could be. Miriam had sired Phoebe and so would always have maternal authority over Marcus’s mate. Both Miriam and Marcus had joined the Bishop-Clairmont scion which made Matthew their head of family. Marcus had made Miriam a Knight of Lazarus of which he was the Grand Master which created another layer of mutual obligation. No wonder vampire ways confused other creatures and humans. That said, all of those layers of connection helped them all cooperate on shared goals which was not the norm for most predators. The goal now was to help Eloise adjust.

“Will you all stay?” Baldwin asked. As much as he wanted to be alone with Eloise, he knew that seeing a newly reborn vampire through the first weeks was best done as a team effort.

“Yes. Matthew has ordered us to your service until Eloise can be safely moved. Fernando will stay with Sarah at Eloise’s house.” Baldwin nodded his thanks and headed up the stairs to run Eloise a bath.

Eloise woke up to a million sounds and as many scents. Her head seemed to explode from the onslaught but she’d barely rolled onto her back before Baldwin was there. “I’m here.” He whispered pitching his voice so low that she doubted even a dog could have heard it.

“So thirsty.” She whispered. In an instant, his wrist was at her mouth and she bit him with relish. Baldwin’s rich blood flowed into her mouth and down her throat. He smiled at his mate as she drank. She’d been through such an ordeal that he couldn’t expect her to be polite about taking his blood. And it was hers to take if she wanted. He let her drink as deeply as she wanted. When she released his wrist, she didn’t know to lick the wound closed so he did it.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” He suggested, scooping her up from the bed. She was still wrapped up like a burrito from when Fernando had brought her over from his house. Carrying her down to the bathroom, he placed her carefully on the floor and let the grimy blanket fall away. She’d clearly gone to bed wearing the blouse he’d given her and a pair of panties. He could smell her arousal and knew that the combination of drinking his blood and the lingering effects of mating sickness were driving her reactions. Vampire blood was the most irresistible date-rape drug in existence. Baldwin stepped back, determined that when they finally made love it would be out of love not blood lust.

“Don’t move.” He told her, bolting out of the room.

“Miriam, Phoebe, go help Eloise get cleaned up.” He muttered before slamming out of the house.

“Update.” Matthew said when he took Marcus’s call.

“I now understand why you and Baldwin wanted Phoebe’s turn to happen the way it did.” His son answered. “Phoebe and Miriam are helping Eloise bathe. Baldwin’s gone for a run.”

“How is he doing, otherwise?” Matthew asked. Baldwin had had a major scare and de Claremonts did not cope well with fear for their mates, generally speaking. He remembered how hard he’d made it for Marcus and Miriam to calm him down after he’d almost killed Diana by drinking too much of her blood.

“He’s struggling to control his own lust, let alone hers. Matthew, do you think you could get through to him. He let her gorge. I saw the marks.” Matthew frowned.

“It’s not surprising after the mating pangs, and the circumstances of Eloise’s turn, that he’d be reluctant to enforce discipline.”

“No!” Matthew heard Miriam’s voice shout an instant before Marcus swore and dropped the phone. A moment later, the crash of Baldwin’s arrival added more chaos. Hanging up, he stared at the phone in frustration. There was nothing he could do to help and he hated it.

In Madison, Marcus flew into the bathroom an instant before Baldwin appeared. Eloise retreated, naked, into a corner of the bathroom with Phoebe in front of her. Eloise’s teeth were clamped onto the side of Phoebe’s neck as she drank. It was Miriam who had shouted and was now physically keeping Marcus back from saving his mate. Phoebe was trying to calm her mate without making the situation any worse.

Baldwin took in the situation at a glance and knew it was his fault. There was no room for indulgence with a new vampire. As much as he’d like to wrap her up in cotton wool, she needed to learn to be a vampire. The etiquette was there for a reason.

“Release Phoebe, now.” He commanded. Eloise’s eyes flickered but she hesitated. Baldwin moved, fast. He was bigger and stronger than the two young females and it was an easy matter to pull them out. In an instant, his teeth clamped on to his mate’s neck.

Like a kitten clamped in parental teeth, Eloise released Phoebe. Marcus yanked her into his arms and shot Baldwin a furious look when he saw the marks on his mate. Licking the wound to remove any hint of Eloise, he pushed her towards Miriam. The three vampires withdrew from the bathroom, leaving Baldwin to deal with Eloise.


	12. It's Complicated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin is reminded of how challenging newly reborn vampires can be.

Diana was in the library with Jack, helping him with the latest draft of his application essay and Matthew was building block castles with the twins when Marcus called him back. Matthew could feel his son’s rage even before he said a word.

“Eloise bit Phoebe!” His son raged.

“Christ!” Matthew muttered. “Is she alright?”

“I’m fine.” Phoebe answered from some distance away. Her vampire hearing letting her participate in the conversation. “It’s just a baby bite, Marcus.”

“Which Baldwin should have already taught her is not acceptable.” Miriam’s voice chimed in quietly. Matthew took a deep breath. Phoebe was part of his family, thrice over. Mated to his son, sired by Miriam, and through her own vow of fealty. Matthew was responsible for her well-being as much as he was for the twins. Eloise had been a vampire for less than a day. Even though she looked like an adult, she was, to all intents and purposes, a new-born.

It wasn’t surprising that Baldwin hadn’t yet set down firm lines for her. He was still recovering from the mating pangs too. But he was now responsible for her misbehaviour and biting a mated vampire without permission was not acceptable.

“Where is Baldwin now?”

“Cleaning her up.” Marcus answered.

“Alright. I’ll text him to call me when he can. Try to be patient.” Matthew urged.

“One more incident like this and I’m sending Phoebe away.” Marcus warned.

“No, you’re not.” His mate answered. Matthew smiled. If Phoebe was arguing with Marcus’s edicts, she was fine.

At the top of the Bishop house, Baldwin was doing his best to remember that his mate couldn’t help her current behaviour. She’d stamped her foot in the bathroom, smashing a hole through to Sarah’s still room. The soothing bath he’d intended had turned into a Battle Royale and he’d been tempted to drown her in the bathtub. Mate or not, she was testing his patience.

The incident with Phoebe had scared him. Phoebe was a new vampire herself and Marcus and Miriam both understood what Eloise was experiencing. Had Eloise attacked another, stronger vampire like that, she could have been killed.

Like it or not, Eloise needed to learn discipline fast. He wrapped her in a towel and carried her up the stairs to the attic room. She still needed to learn to manage her vampire strength but right now, she needed to learn a few basic rules.

“You will not bite anyone until I give you permission. Do you understand me?” Baldwin asked grimly.

“I was hungry!”

“No, you weren’t. I fed you less than an hour ago.” Baldwin refuted. In his back pocket, his phone buzzed. No doubt a message from Matthew. Eloise crossed her arms and looked away.

“Look at me.” Baldwin commanded. He waited for her to obey. “I am the head of this family. I am also your mate and your maker. All three of those facts create obligations on both of us. My first obligation is to ensure your wellbeing by any means necessary. Yours is to obey me so that I can do it.”

“I told you I’m my own person.” Eloise told him. Baldwin nodded and squatted down so that they were at eye level.

“I know you did. And once you have learned what you need to know to live as a vampire, I’ll give you as much freedom as I can. But right now, you are a danger to yourself and others. To protect you, I must impose control until you are able to control yourself. You bit Phoebe and while you must apologise, no real harm was done. But if you’d bitten a human, things might be very different. If you’d bitten a vampire, especially a vampire’s mate, you could have been killed.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt Phoebe.” Eloise whispered.

“I know.” Baldwin gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Let’s get you dressed and then you can present your apologies.” Eloise wrinkled her nose.

“This is humiliating.”

“That’s part of the lesson.” Baldwin told her calmly. “I don’t want to overload you with too many rules at once. For now, the only two rules you need to worry about are these. First, you don’t bite anyone or anything without permission. Second, you defer to your elders completely. Phoebe may be a young vampire, but she is your elder in this regard.” Eloise nodded. “I’ll carry you downstairs. I think you’ve stamped enough holes in Sarah’s floors.”

Eloise was surprised by how gracious Phoebe was in accepting her apology. Eloise still couldn’t believe she’d bitten her hard enough to draw blood. The marks had already heeled and only the drops of blood on her shirt collar remained as evidence. Biting was clearly bad form as a vampire but it would have been criminal assault as a human. Marcus seemed inclined to be forgiving too but Miriam made sure to position herself between Phoebe and Eloise.

“Fernando called.” Phoebe said, obviously wanting to soothe all ruffled feathers. “He and Sarah are taking care of your pets and house. And they’ve let your team at the day care centre know that you’ll be away for a while.”

“Thank you for helping me.” Baldwin’s hand rubbed her back in silent approval.

“I need to call Matthew.” Baldwin announced. “Can I leave you for a few minutes?”

“A test?” She asked.

“Yes.” Eloise was shocked by his agreement but none of the other vampires seemed surprised.

“I won’t bite any one.” She muttered. Baldwin nodded once and headed outside to call Matthew.

Baldwin walked to the end of the driveway and took a deep breath. In a way, this was the first time that he would speak to Matthew as a true equal. Matthew was the head of his scion and one of Baldwin’s family had attacked one of his. Eloise had apologised but the matter would not be closed until he and Matthew addressed it.

“Hi Matthew.”

“Hi Baldwin.” Matthew didn’t make things difficult. “How is Eloise?”

“Embarrassed, as she should be.” In the office at Les Revenant, Matthew looked outside where Diana was in the kitchen garden with the children collecting tomatoes. “I’m sorry, Matthew. I should have anticipated that Eloise might attack so soon after a turn.”

“Yes, you should have.” As Baldwin had done with Eloise, Matthew didn’t sugar-coat the truth. “Controlling a newly reborn vampire is never easy, Baldwin. You know that. But after what you two have just been through, it will be especially difficult.”

“You haven’t turned Diana.” Baldwin reminded him. Matthew hadn’t experienced the conflicting impulses of mating and siring.

“No, I haven’t. That presents its own challenges. But I can tell you something I’ve become aware of recently. No matter the details of your relationship, your responsibility above all else is to keep Eloise safe. If you do it well, she won’t just _be_ safe; she’ll _feel_ safe. Discipline doesn’t make you the enemy.” Matthew chuckled. “And no matter how demanding you are, you’ll certainly be gentler with your mate than Philippe was when we were learning to be vampires!” Baldwin laughed at the memory of Philippe’s brand of discipline.

“No, there is that. Thanks Matthew.”

“Keep me posted.”

“Will do.” Baldwin ended the call and looked across the field. It was amazing what a difference finding your mate could make. He suddenly felt like he was part of a family again and not just the head. He wasn’t alone. Focusing on the house, he could hear Eloise starting to argue with Marcus about coming outside. Baldwin hurried back.

“You don’t have permission to go out yet.” He told his mate. Marcus stepped back to let Baldwin get closer to Eloise. “Your vampire senses need more time to adjust before we risk it.” Eloise’s lip curled with frustration. Not wanting her to embarrass herself again, Baldwin flipped her over his shoulder and carried her back up the stairs to the attic room. When he set her down, she stamped her foot, easily breaking though the boards. The shards of wood cut into her skin creating yet another gory mess. Apparently, he would need to refurbish the entire house before Eloise was done. Walking around the bed, he settled himself. Eloise looked interested and promptly moved to kiss him. Baldwin gave her a chaste kiss then moved her so that she was laying beside her. “Have you ever heard the term _bundling_?” he asked.

At Les Revenants, Matthew went out to join his family in the garden. Diana had the children practicing harvesting raspberries and putting them in the basket without crushing them. For toddlers, that was a challenge whether they used their fingers or magic. “Any news from Madison?” Diana asked after he’d dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Yes. Eloise is awake and having her first lessons as a vampire. She’s finding it challenging.”

“Uh-oh. What happened?” Matthew recounted the calls with Marcus and Baldwin.

“I should call her.”

“No. You shouldn’t.” Matthew said. He knew that Diana thought she could provide a witch’s view of vampire life but that wasn’t what Eloise needed just now. “Besides, I doubt that Baldwin has given her phone privileges yet.”

“He’ll need to ease back on the autocratic routine.” Diana insisted.

“Not now, he doesn’t.” Taking a deep breath, Matthew quirked a smile at his mate. “ _Mon Coeur_ , I know you are worried about your friend. But she is Baldwin’s mate and they need to find their own way through this. It will be easier for her, in the long-run, if she accepts his authority while she learns her new life.”

“At least he doesn’t have a secret like blood rage to keep them apart.” Diana said.

“No. But being your mate’s maker presents other challenges.” Matthew said. “He’ll need to help her differentiate between feeding and sex.”

“Surely that’s a pretty simple concept.” Diana said, popping a raspberry into his mouth.

“You’d be surprised.” Matthew rolled to his feet and lifted the children by grabbing the back of their pants and hoisting them up. Both toddlers screamed in delight and Diana followed her family inside to start dinner preparations.


	13. Even Vampires Need Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fernando, Matthew, and Baldwin all must deal with determined females.

In Madison, Fernando was having witch-ey troubles of his own. Sarah was struggling with being kept away from Eloise. “She needs me!”

“She _needs_ to adjust to being a vampire, Sarah.” Fernando explained. They’d been having some version of this argument every few hours and he was heartily sick of it.

“I’ll just go check on her. I won’t even stay long.” Arguing with his sieur’s aunt-by-marriage was not what he signed up for. Taking his phone out, he thrust it at Sarah and used the same method he’d used with Diana in Oxford after they found the third page of the Book of Life and she’d wanted to race straight to the library to call up Ashmole 782.

“The only way you are going over there is if you can get Matthew or Baldwin’s permission. Call them. Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

“You think I won’t.” Sarah said, her eyes narrowing.

“Not at all. But I am fairly confident that Baldwin will not risk his mate accidentally murdering his sister’s aunt.” Letting her temper get the better of her, Sarah grabbed the phone and dialled Matthew’s number.

“Fernando?”

“Matthew! It’s Sarah. Will you tell him to let me see Eloise? He says he won’t without your permission.” Glancing at Diana across the room, Matthew smiled at her before heading outside. Diana understood that some of his conversations needed to be private. This was certainly one of them.

“Put me on speaker so you can both hear me.” He said quietly as he made his way across the drawbridge so he’d be out of Diana’s hearing as well as Jack and the twins’. Sarah smirked and pressed the button.

“Tell him.”

“I’m telling you both. Sarah you are to stay the hell away from Eloise until Baldwin says different. I don’t care how mad you get at me. Diana still blames herself for what happened to Emily and I will not have her lose anyone else because of the vampires she brought into your life.”

“It wasn’t her fault.” Sarah whispered with tears in her eyes.

“And that doesn’t matter.” Matthew said, his tone much gentler. “Eloise is doing brilliantly, Sarah. I promise. She has four vampires there to provide everything she needs. Please, I need you to be safe so that Diana can function. Will you do that for me, please?”

“Yes Matthew.” He smiled.

“You almost sounded like Ysabeau for a second.” She gave a watery chuckle. “I’ll send updates, I promise. Just try to be patient. And if it gets too hard, come to us.”

“I might. Thank you, Matthew.” The line cut and Matthew took a deep breath before heading back inside.

“Matthew? Can you come up please?” Diana called a few hours later. Jack had gone up to Sept-Tours to take Marthe and Ysabeau out to dinner in the village and the twins were already in bed. Smiling, he hurried up to their bedroom. Diana was waiting for him, naked except for one of his ties draped over her shoulders.

Smiling, Matthew loped over and caught the silk ends to pull her close for a kiss. “Are you entertaining impure thoughts?” He murmured.

“I am.” Diana agreed.

“And you liked the blindfold the other night.” Matthew tugged on the ends of the tie, sliding it back and forth along the skin at the back of her neck.

“I did. But tonight, you’re the one who will be blindfolded.”

“Oh?” Matthew was all for letting Diana take charge too.

“I ran you a bath. Go have a bit of a soak, my love.” Intrigued, he headed into their bathroom. Diana had added one of her mystic potions to the water and he played along, trying to guess what was in this blend and why she’d chosen it while he took off his clothes. There was lemon balm, verbena, and citronella at least.

The water was just the right side of too-hot and it took all of Matthew’s discipline not to moan with pleasure. Whatever else his wife had in mind, the simple physical joy of settling into the fragrant heat was wonderful. He lingered only a short time, too curious about what else she had in mind. Scrubbing himself dry with a towel, he returned to find that she’d added the same blend of oils to a warmer and laid a large bath towel out on their bed.

“Sit here for a minute.” Diana ordered. When he did, she used the tie to blindfold him before dropping a kiss on his lips. Matthew resisted the urge to pull her into a more thorough kiss. He wanted to let her roll out her plan. “Now, lie down. Face down, please.” Matthew settled himself as she commanded.

A moment later, the relaxing sounds of Holst’s Venus the Bringer of Peace began to fill the room. Diana adjusted his position slightly, moving his arms so that his hands rested palm up beside him. When she was satisfied, she poured a bit of the oil into her hands and began rubbing it into his shoulders.

Matthew was shocked with how perfect the moment was. He forced himself to savour every detail of her touch, the smells she’d selected and her own scent. It took all of his mediation skills to focus on what she was doing and how it felt.

Diana felt her eyes prickling as Matthew fully relaxed beneath her hands. She had decided that she was going to take all the time in the world to just touch and pamper her vampire. As she moved down from his shoulders, she moved around the bed and climbed up, sitting on his bare bum. His hands moved to stroke her skin lightly but otherwise he remained patient under her touch. When she was done with his back, she leaned down to kiss his shoulder. “How are you feeling?” She whispered in his ear.

“Happy. Loved.” He answered. Kissing his jaw, she moved off the bed. Standing near his feet, she poured more oil into her hand and took one of his long beautiful feet in both of her hands. Careful not to tickle him, she rubbed the oil into his feet and along his calf towards his knees. She wondered if he realised that he was making the soft purring sound that she’d only previously heard him make during sex. She continued the massage with his other foot and moved onto his thighs. By the time she was done, Matthew was completely relaxed. Returning to the other side of the bed, she gently stroked his hair back from his face and dropped a kiss on his temple.

“Roll over for me?” She asked. He seemed so mellow that she wondered if he’d even want to make that effort. He did.

She massaged his shoulders, arms, and hands before moving back to his feet. This time, she knelt between his knees. He was completely relaxed until she started working on his thighs.

Still blindfolded, he couldn’t see Diana’s smile as his body reacted to her touch. Adjusting her position once more, she reached for Matthew’s hands, twining their fingers as he often did to her before she started kissing his belly. Matthew’s body reacted instantly to this new touch and he moved as if to prevent it.

“Shhh… just enjoy it.” Diana told him, licking and kissing her way towards his erection. It took a conscious effort but Matthew complied, offering no protest when she took him into her mouth.

It wasn’t the first time she’d pleased him like this and she knew perfectly how to do it. Tonight, she was working on vampire time. She wanted to draw out his pleasure as long as he could bear it.

Matthew had other ideas. Pulling his hands free, he ripped off the blindfold and dragged Diana up his body, settling her on his erection in a move so fast she didn’t realise it was happening until her body opened to him. She watched in wonder as he moved her body on his. He’d been so close that she was surprised to tip first into orgasm. Matthew rolled them over so that he was on top of her as he reached his climax.

Diana held on to him as he recovered, whispering sweet nonsense in his ear. Finally, he raised his head and kissed her. Tugging the towel from under them, he tossed it aside and somehow manoeuvred them under the covers. His eyes had that glazed look that the twins got when they were unbearably tired. Snuggling with him under the covers, Diana cast the sleeping spell she usually only used on Jack and sent Matthew into perfect slumber.

Up in the attic room, Baldwin had settled on a strategy of talking to keep Eloise distracted. She seemed to fluctuate between wanting sex and wanting food and it was taking all of Baldwin’s resolve to stick to his plan.

“We’ve been out to dinner. You brought me flowers. You’ve turned me into a vampire. What more do you need before we do the deed?” Eloise demanded, frustrated.

“Privacy.” Baldwin told her. “I refuse to consummate our union somewhere where we will be overheard by three other vampires.” As if to prove his point, they both heard Marcus and Phoebe make their way to the bedroom they were using. They could hear Phoebe reassuring Marcus that she was fine and then yelping as he clearly decided to see for himself. To Eloise’s surprise, her newly enhanced hearing gave her so much detail that virtually nothing was left to her imagination. Shocked, she looked at Baldwin.

“Shouldn’t we tell them we can hear them?” She whispered.

“They know. But they are young enough not to care.” Baldwin answered. “They don’t even care that Phoebe’s mother is in the house.”

“Miriam is too young to be Phoebe’s mother.” Eloise argued, still confused by the difference between apparent age and real age when it came to immortals.

“Miriam is even older than I am.” Baldwin answered. “But the point is that we will wait. You are not in a position to give informed, reasoned consent and I won’t take advantage of your current situation. Once you’ve been weened and trained to hunt, we’ll see about getting married and consummating our relationship.”

“I’m not an infant, Baldwin. I want you.” Her hand moved fast, but not fast enough.

“And I said no.” Baldwin told her grimly, his grip on her wrist punishing. “It’s far too soon for you to need sleep but we’ll practice mediation instead.

“No.” Eloise said, rolling away from him in a huff when he released her wrist. Baldwin chuckled.

“Very well, my love. But you are not to leave this bed until I say so.” Closing his eyes, Baldwin started mediating on what a marvel it was that any vampires survived to adulthood.


	14. What Is It You Think You Know?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin starts sharing his secrets.

“What does the preliminary analysis show?” Matthew asked Chris Roberts in their weekly call. Fernando had driven out with the blood samples they’d collected from Baldwin and Eloise the night Baldwin had turned her into a vampire.

“Nothing that makes sense yet.” Chris replied as Baldwin came barrelling into the room. He glared at the gallery of faces on the screen.

“Maybe you should figure out how any vampire survives the terrible twos.” He growled. Phoebe, who had been quietly sitting in Sarah’s favourite reading chair shrank down. Her own turn, and the embarrassing memories of the first days afterwards, were still painfully fresh.

“Tough day?” Marcus asked cheerfully. Chris took a suspiciously long sip of his coffee. Matthew managed to keep a straight face but it was obviously an effort.

“I just had to shun her!” Baldwin complained, running a hand through his hair. Marcus winced and looked away, unable to meet his father’s gaze. Last year, Matthew had shunned Becca for almost two minutes after she bit him. The reprimand had had a much stronger effect on his elder sons. Marcus and Jack had walked on eggshells for hours after that and any mention of it still made them cringe.

“Feed, Baldwin.” Matthew suggested. “No one can sustain a growing vampire and manage their behaviour on an empty stomach.” Baldwin nodded and headed for the fridge where they kept the bags of blood. Uncharacteristically, he poured out a mug for the other three vampires too. His frustration was tempered by his mate to his bond but he certainly didn’t want any of the other vampires around to start feeling peckish.

“Have your tests shown anything interesting yet?” Baldwin asked. Anything to extend his break from Eloise’s intransigence.

“We aren’t sure.” Chris said. “The only thing that has jumped out at me is this area on the mtDNA.” On the screen, his cursor moved to a section of a round graph that meant nothing to Baldwin.

“That is quite remarkable.” Matthew agreed. “Ok. Keep us posted. Send me the latest data and I’ll run the numbers. Marcus, Miriam, can you do a comparative analysis of Baldwin and Eloise’s pre- and post- DNA please?”

“Sure Matthew.”

“Baldwin, as soon as we have anything interesting, I’ll let you know. For now, you have enough to deal with. How are you set for blood?”

“There’s plenty. Fernando dropped off a fresh supply this morning.” Taking a deep breath, Baldwin managed a rare smile.

“Thanks, all of you.” With that, Matthew closed the call.

“Baldwin sounds tired.” Diana said from her perch on the library ladder.

“He is.”

“Is Eloise worse than other vampires?” Matthew chuckled.

“No. She’s certainly not as bad as I was. I think that’s part of the reason that Ysabeau sleeps so little, even for a vampire. The nightmares from turning me.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. And even if it was, it wasn’t your fault. You had blood rage.” Matthew reached out suddenly and pulled her down onto his lap.

“It’s a great comfort to me to know that you are completely delusional about my flaws.” Matthew told her with a kiss.

“Oh, I am perfectly aware of your flaws, Matthew Clairmont.” She smirked. “I just happen to find them endearing.” Matthew chuckled.

“Since I know you’re dying to know. Eloise and Baldwin are fine. So are Marcus, Miriam, Phoebe, Sarah and Fernando. Eloise’s DNA and mtDNA have been sequenced but I still need to review the results before I send them to Baldwin.”

“You won’t send them to Eloise?” Diana asked. “They’re her results.” Matthew recognized a storm when he saw one and put a finger over Diana’s lips.

“Eloise is a de Claremont now. Specifically, she is the mate of the head of the family. She will have tremendous authority, as you have. But her access to confidential information is contingent on Baldwin’s will.” Diana wiggled to get up but Matthew easily kept her in place. “Still find my flaws endearing, _mon Coeur_?” He asked, nuzzling her neck.

“That depends.” Diana began. “Would you keep information about me secret from me?”

“You know the answer to that, Diana. If I had information that I believed would upset you for no go reason, I wouldn’t hesitate to keep it from you.” Diana rested her head against his shoulder as she considered his words. Since Venice, there’d been a shift in their relationship as if the foundation beneath them was settling properly into place.

Matthew had a knack of taking on responsibility for everyone around him. He’d sprang into action when Baldwin had called him to tell him that Eloise had mating sickness, moving everything into optimal position. It hadn’t struck Diana as the least bit strange at the time that Baldwin would reach out to Matthew first. And even as he was providing all the support Baldwin needed, he’d taken the time to ensure Sarah was safe and that Eloise’s pets were cared for. He’d handled Jack’s educational angst and still made time to play with the twins or translate some of Philippe’s letters that Diana thought might be useful. And he continued his research work, attending meetings and analysing data.

Through all of it, he’d remained as attentive and loving with her as always. He joyfully explored her new desires but still made sure that she had a salad with her carbs. He made sure that she fell asleep in his arms every night but also considered how to keep her self-defence skills sharp. He was her constant.

Pulling back, Diana smiled and then kissed him softly. “I love you and I have faith in you. So yes, I still find your flaws endearing.” Matthew kissed her back thoroughly and then lifted her to her feet with a swat to her backside.

“Stop distracting me, wife! And the twins are starting to wake up from their nap. Go tend my children.”

Baldwin had been gone no more than a few minutes but when he returned to the attic, Eloise was exactly where he’d left her but now curled up with her cheek on her knees. Blood tears had tracked down her cheeks and she was playing with her toes in the way of a small child trying to sooth themselves. Baldwin felt his resolve crack a little bit.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered. “I’m not _trying_ to make you hate me.” Baldwin surged forward and lifted her into his lap as he sat down.

“Shh… I don’t hate you, my love.” Baldwin stroked her hair and rocked lightly.

“Marcus does. So does Miriam.” Eloise said. She wasn’t sure about Phoebe.

“No, they don’t.” Baldwin assured her. He considered for a moment what he could say to help her. “Tell me about your favourite children.” He encouraged, hoping he’d find a story there to guide him. Whatever the perils of turning his own mate, and the emotional complexity of the process, this was a special time in a vampire’s life. It might have been nice to follow the traditional approach that Marcus and Phoebe had but that wasn’t Baldwin and Eloise’s story. It was on him to find a way to make this a time one of joy and discovery for Eloise. He couldn’t bear the thought that she might come to view this with shame.

“I don’t have any favourites.” Eloise said primly.

“Yes, you do. Don’t lie to me.” Baldwin ordered. She looked up at him in surprise. “When you are ready, I will take you to meet my children. I am certain you will have no trouble decerning who my favourites are.”

“You have children?” She gasped. “How old are they? I love children!”

“My youngest is four hundred and fifty years old.” Baldwin said, smiling. Clearly, vampire time hadn’t quite percolated into Eloise’s thinking. “Now, tell me about your favourite child.”

“Sammy Cooper. He’s a scamp.” Eloise said. “He just seems to be a magnet for trouble and he gets so frustrated when it finds him.” She told him stories about the antics of the young boy. For Baldwin, it all sounded so benign. He was just a young child trying to learn the rules of being a person.

“If he’s so much trouble, why is he your favourite?” Baldwin asked when she stopped.

“He cares about others. A few weeks ago,” Eloise paused. A few weeks was a life time ago. A different life than the one she would live. The change since she’d last seen Sammy was inconceivable. “Before I left for the Congregation, I gave him a hug and promised I’d be back in a few days.” Eloise said, distracted from the story she’d been about to tell. Baldwin felt her start shaking and tightened his hold. “I need to go show him I’m alright, Baldwin!”

“I’m sorry, Eloise, I cannot allow that.”

“But he’ll be worried!”

“If you write a note for the children, I will ask Phoebe to take it over.” Baldwin promised.

“At least let me call them!”

“If I did, you would easily hear the pounding of their hearts through the phone line. Two dozen tiny little hearts full of sweet, fresh blood.” He explained. “You cannot see it yet, but because of the circumstances of your rebirth, you are not able to separate love and sustenance. The pain you felt from the mating pangs and the relief that mating provided will take you decades or maybe even centuries to detangle. It would be a matter of an instant and your Sammy would be dead.” Not for the first time, Baldwin was grateful that Benjamin was dead and could no longer harm anyone. To induce a new vampire to kill warm-bloods she loved would have been just the kind of evil he delighted in. “Did it hurt when your wisdom teeth came in?” He asked her, wanting to distract her from her sadness.

“Yes.”

“Mine too.” Baldwin admitted. “At the time, I was a legionary and grateful to be in the barracks rather than at home where my youngest daughter was teething.”

“You had children!”

“Yes. Three daughters. Minerva, Flora, and…” Baldwin admitted. He paused before sharing the next detail. “Diana.” Eloise’s head snapped up and he chuckled. “Yes, I had a daughter named Diana. No one else knows that. But you are my mate, it is fitting that you should know my origin story.”

“What happened to them?”

“I arranged good marriages for them and supported their mother for the rest of her life.”

“But you didn’t go back to be with them? You didn’t turn them?”

“No. It took a decade before Philippe allowed me to even travel to Rome. By the time Diana was wed, I’d been a vampire for twenty years and understood that while a warm-blood life is short, it is a life. Philippe kept us all on a very short leash back then and his methods were brutal. I didn’t want that for my daughters. Ysabeau says that the witches’ goddess has a sense of humour and so she must. Diana and Matthew’s daughter, Rebecca, reminds me so much of my birth daughter. I must constantly remind myself that she is not, in fact, my own child.”

“That’s not the story you started to tell me.” Eloise said gently. “We were talking about Sammy, and wisdom teeth.” Baldwin nodded.

“When my wisdom teeth came in, they hurt. Thankfully, one of the effects of vampire blood is to correct dental misalignment.”

“I’ve already bitten my tongue a few times when it’s gotten caught where my human teeth weren’t.” Baldwin nodded.

“Try to resist savouring your own blood too much. It provides no sustenance but it can easily mesmerise a new-born vampire.” With that advice, he continued with his story. “The pain was relentless, for weeks.” Baldwin reminisced. “There were no pain-killers back then, of course. Still, the medic took pity on me and gave me a ration of hard mulsum.”

“Muslim?” Eloise frowned. She didn’t remember that part of her high-school history lessons.

“No. Islam didn’t come into being for another six centuries or so. Mulsum. It was the Roman version of mead. It could have a relatively high level of alcohol in it and the medic would mix it with crushed poppy. He gave me some to ease the pain enough that I could train despite it. But he also told me that it was the way that the gods reminded us of what it was like for an infant getting their first tooth.”

“Being reborn, and having to relearn everything, is like that.” Eloise said, understanding his point. “I always tried to be patient and understanding with the children but at times they did things that were incomprehensible to me.”

“Exactly. Every vampire remembers their turn. The bond to our maker is established in those first months. Human parents do not remember their beginning. They don’t remember what it is like to be entirely dependent on others for their most basic needs. Vampires do. So, as trying as you may be at times, I know that all of this is normal. I may feel impatience but I understand that you are doing your best.” Eloise managed a smile and tucked her head under his chin so he couldn’t see her expression as she asked her next question.

“I’ve cared for many, many children, Baldwin. Most of them are long since grown. In fact, just this year, I received the first child of the third generation of kids. I still think of all of them as my children. How will you not think of me as a baby forever?”

“It isn’t like that.” Baldwin assured her. “Remember, I met you and knew you to be my mate before I turned you into a vampire.”

“What difference does that make?” Baldwin considered how to explain.

“In your memories, I saw your mother.” He said slowly.

“Yes. She died years ago.”

“She had dementia?” Baldwin asked. Eloise nodded. “And yet, she remained your mother. For a time, at the end of her life, she was not the woman you’d known. In some ways, she seems to have been quite childlike even. But that did not make her your child.” Baldwin stroked Eloise’s back. “This is a special time for you but it is also just a short phase in our future together, my love. In time, you will adapt and become your own vampire. You will know what is permitted and what is not in our world. The de Claremonts control immense wealth and influence. In time, you will wield it as easily and naturally as Ysabeau or Diana do. You will find projects to occupy and interest you. This time will be a mere memory like the night we went dancing in Venice or your first helicopter ride. It will be an early chapter of our story, nothing more.”


	15. A House Divided Can Stand A Few Vampires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Bishop House has something to say - or not.

“It’s weird.” Marcus muttered to Miriam. “I don’t like it.”

“I know! I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.” The two vampires looked around the Bishop house and wondered exactly why it had been behaving so well. The last time they’d stayed, the house had made its opinions known. Once it had decided that Matthew was a member of the family, Miriam and Marcus had been tolerated but clearly on sufferance.

The fact that there’d been no mischief was worrying. Marcus had repaired the broken floor boards in the bathroom without even a single door slam.

“What shoe?” Baldwin asked, coming down the stairs.

“The house has been unusually patient.” Baldwin looked at them as if they’d both lost their minds.

“It’s haunted.” Marcus explained.

“And opinionated.” Miriam muttered. The house clearly thought that was a bit rude and all the cabinets in the kitchen opened and slammed shut at once. The resulting noise was clearly too much for Eloise who howled a protest. Baldwin disappeared back up the stairs to soothe her. The cabinet doors opened again and waited for a moment before closing part way and reopening.

“Apologise before the house decides it doesn’t want us here!” Marcus told Miriam. Miriam frowned but nodded.

“That was rude, house. I apologise and thank you for your hospitality.” The cabinets all closed and as a sign of forgiveness, a bowl of sugared nuts and cranberries appeared on the table. “Now that I think about it,” Miriam said thoughtfully. “I think the house has been working. We just didn’t notice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve never known a new-born vampire to be so quiet.” Miriam shot a glance at Phoebe who was in Sarah’s reading chair with her laptop. “I don’t think Eloise is, though. I think it’s just that thing that Diana said: the house has a thing about privacy.” Shooting Marcus a dark look, she took a swipe at her daughter’s mate. “Even if you don’t.”

Marcus chuckled even while Phoebe tried to hide behind her laptop. Standing up, he walked over to his mate and deliberately planted an enthusiastic kiss on her lips. By the time he was done, Miriam had gone out to hunt.

When she returned, Miriam found Baldwin sitting on the porch. Something told her that he had been waiting for her. “It’s time to wean Eloise.” He announced.

“It is.” Miriam agreed. She’d been considering the problem for days. “Madison is a small town, Baldwin. One with a large number of witches and where Eloise is well-known. You can’t take her hunting here.”

“Unlike Paris.” Baldwin muttered. It was where Miriam had turned Phoebe into a vampire. While it had complicated some elements of the situation, was also easier to provide willing prey.

“We did some taste tests first to determine what prey Phoebe preferred. It would be easy enough to arrange the same for Eloise. Then you could hire prey that fit the bill.”

“No males.” Baldwin said.

“Park your possessiveness, Baldwin.” Miriam snapped. “Feeding on the hoof is a matter of survival. Most of the time, we feed from bagged blood so it’s really only for emergencies. In those cases, it is easier if you choose something you want to drink from.” Baldwin capitulated instantly and stood, walking to porch railing and looking out.

“Do you know why Matthew sent you to help me, Miriam?” Baldwin asked mildly.

“I have just recently turned Phoebe.” She answered as if that was enough answer. Phoebe’s turn had been the most scientifically-backed conversion in history. Miriam was now the world expert on cautious conversions.

“No. Well, that’s part of it, but it isn’t all of it.” Baldwin said quietly. “Matthew has carried the guilt of what happened with Eleanor, and Bertrand, ever since it happened. But until he met Diana, his guilt was for what happened to them, and to you as a result. Once he was mated, he understood what we’d cost you. His guilt gave way to grief for the pain he caused those he loves. Now that I am mated; I too understand the magnitude of what we cost you. No reparation is possible for such a cruelty but I would still like to apologise for my part in it. I’m sorry, Miriam. Bertrand was a fine vampire and your honour has been a tribute to him these many centuries.” Miriam blinked. She’d long ago sworn that she would never allow a de Claremont to make her cry again. “You will always have this family’s loyalty and gratitude.” Baldwin told her, turning around. Standing up, Miriam acknowledged his promise with a nod and returned to the woods.

Baldwin returned to the attic and found Eloise practicing holding a pen. The first few attempts had resulted in splotches of ink everywhere when her vampire fingers crushed the barrels. Pencils had not been a great option either as the graphite leads collapsed into dust. After some practice, she’d managed to hold a writing implement but not to apply it to a page without ripping through the surface.

“How long did it take you to relearn how to write?” She asked. Baldwin smiled.

“It was easier back then. We used vellum, not paper. It’s a more resistant surface. By the time paper came into common use, I’d been a vampire for centuries.”

“Oh.” Baldwin sat down beside her.

“Tomorrow, I will need to resume some work.” He told her gently. “And you will need to start keeping yourself busy without causing havoc.” His smile took the bite out of his words.

“I could work on the nursery accounts.” Eloise suggested.

“No.” Baldwin told her. “You’d become instantly light-struck if you looked at a screen and even if we printed out the documents, you’d struggle with paper and pen.”

“Do you think I could speak with Phoebe?”

“That would be a good use of your time, and hers. But only if Marcus, and Miriam, allow it.”

“Not Phoebe?”

“No. Phoebe is still too young to make these decisions. She must defer to her elders. In this case, her maker and her mate.”

“Marcus didn’t sire her?” Eloise asked, surprised. “Why not?”

“That is not my story to tell.” Baldwin said. “And that is today’s lesson, before you incur more trouble. Vampires do not share any stories that are not theirs to tell. And we do not ask others to share even their own stories.”

“Conversations must be difficult if no one can ask any questions.” Eloise remarked. “And I just can’t imagine that Diana would ever be able to live by that rule!” Baldwin chuckled.

“Diana does struggle with this aspect of vampire life. It helps now that she is the Book of Life and has learned many great secrets. She’s also discovered what it is like for people to demand answers all the time. Nevertheless, this is important, my love. Diana is an exception. Even so, Matthew struggles to balance her needs against her desires and his other obligations. As the head of my family, and because I am ancient, there are centuries of secrets that I must keep. Even as my consort, there will be much I cannot share with you. It is not a question of love but of honour. Some secrets I will keep to protect you, some to protect others. I will never tell you an untruth but there are many truths I won’t tell you.”

“Boundaries.” Eloise murmured. It had been just a few days since she’d instructed Baldwin to respect her boundaries and he’d accepted the limits he set. She would do no less. Thinking of that conversation brought the nursery back to mind. “Will I ever be able to return to work, Baldwin?” She asked.

“Yes, but it may be different work. Madison is very small, Eloise. Too small to sustain even just two vampires for any length of time.”

“But I love my work.”

“I know. But perhaps you could find a new way to serve your passions. I know that Diana and Matthew face some unique challenges with the twins. And there will soon be more Bright Borns, now that the Covenant has ended. Those children will need schooling to prepare them for the world to come. Perhaps that is something you would find interesting? Bright Born nurseries and schools?” Eloise’s eyes widened.

“I’d like that.”

“Then perhaps you can make plans while you adjust to your new life.”

“Where will you be?”

“Just downstairs. Call if you need me, but only if you need me.” Kissing her temple, Baldwin headed down the stairs.

“No.” Miriam and Marcus said in unison when Baldwin asked if Phoebe might spend some time with Eloise. Phoebe rolled her eyes and deliberately moved to stand beside Baldwin as she faced her two fiercest protectors.

“Of course, I should do it. Eloise will want to learn about being a vampire mate.”

“She can learn from me.” Miriam insisted. Phoebe wisely refrained from pointing out to her maker that she hadn’t been a mate for over a thousand years.

“Miriam, Eloise needs someone who remembers what it is like to be a fledgling.” Baldwin said softly. “Someone who can answer her questions.”

“She shouldn’t be asking questions!” Marcus snapped. “I forbid it. After what happened last time Eloise was near Phoebe, you can’t think that I would risk my mate.” Phoebe held on to her temper. Her fun and easy-going mate might be the most laid back of the vampire males she knew but that wasn’t a particularly high bar. Marcus had a thread of Matthew’s steel running through his veins and it was even more apparent the longer he served as Grand Master of the Knights of Lazarus. He did not take chances where she was concerned and had been beating himself up over the bite incident since it had happened.

“She caught me by surprise. I think she was surprised too.” Phoebe said, reaching out to stroke Marcus’s crossed arms. Baldwin said nothing, his desire to give his mate what she wanted conflicting with his own growing need to protect her. He wished he didn’t empathise with Marcus so much. It was bloody inconvenient. With her free hand, she reached out to her mother. “Both of you have insisted that I learn how to defend myself. I failed and I am sorry for it. Please, give me another chance to prove that I can be trusted without supervision. Eloise is a baby and the three of you will be right here. There will never be a less risky way for me to practice.”

As always, Baldwin was impressed with Marcus’s mate. Phoebe was brilliant when it came to the financials of the family art collection but she was also a consummate diplomat. She’d reframed what she wanted as a way of giving her mate and maker what they needed. It was brilliant. Miriam nodded her permission. Marcus took a moment longer but also agreed. A quick kiss to her mate’s lips and Phoebe was on her way up the stairs before they could change their minds.

Above them, a subtle change in the house meant they could hear Phoebe as she moved a chair near to Eloise and they began speaking. Once all three elder vampires were satisfied, the house gave everyone blessed privacy.


	16. The Sons of the Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin lets go of some old grudges.

Baldwin sat out on the porch, a glass of wine by his hand and his phone in front of him. He couldn’t believe what he was considering doing.

_Fuck._

He thought back to the day he’d first heard the name Diana Bishop. Ysabeau had called him to say that Matthew’s witch had been captured from within the walls of Sept-Tours. He’d been enraged. It was so like Matthew to ignore the past and focus on only what mattered to him. Witches had tortured Philippe but Matthew had just taken up with one as if that didn’t matter.

Ysabeau’s appeal to his responsibilities as head of the family, or her insistence that the violation of Sept-Tours was an affront to the family would not have been enough. Certainly, Matthew’s Grand Master schtick wouldn’t have done the trick either.

What had done the trick was a promise he’d made to his father.

In 1912, Philippe and Ysabeau had come up to Paris. Ysabeau was out shopping with Freya while Baldwin and Philippe discussed family matters and finances. As was their habit, they’d gone out on the town, enjoying a bit of hunting and other recreation that was available to the modern vampire-about-town. Specialised houses where vampire tastes were catered to. After feasting on an intoxicating blend of tainted bloods, they’d sat in one of the salons, smoking expensive cigars and watching a grossly outrageous performance of Molière’s The School for Wives. Given an audience of ancient vampires, the story of a young innocent groomed at the pleasure of a much older man and all parts played by seasoned prostitutes: it had been memorable.

After the play, they’d continued to drink and talk. Philippe had become uncharacteristically pensive. It was then that he had told Baldwin his intention to name Matthew as Grand Master of the Knights of Lazarus. Baldwin had been furious but had known better than to challenge his father.

“A day will come, Baldwin.” Philippe had said quietly. “When Matthew will call on the Knights of Lazarus to defend an enemy.”

“I will kill him that day.” Baldwin promised his father.

“No. When that day comes, you will remember this moment. You will honour your vow to the Knights and trust that Matthew is on a path that he is destined to forge.” Baldwin wondered if perhaps his father had consumed a particularly potent blend of drugged blood. “Your word, Baldwin. You will never betray your oath as a Knight of Lazarus, no matter what may happen between now and then.”

“On my honour.” Baldwin had sworn.

When Matthew had called on him to honour his oath, he’d known the moment had come. Matthew had thought it was the vow to the Order of the Knights of Lazarus that compelled Baldwin but it was the promise he’d made to Philippe that night.

When Matthew and Diana had returned to the present and he’d heard his father’s blood song, Baldwin had felt betrayed to the marrow of his bones. What Philippe had known and when, what he had done and why were all questions that had tormented Baldwin for months.

In the end, he’d come to see that even Philippe de Claremont was no match for the gods. The prophesy had foretold Matthew and Diana’s union and no man could change that. His sister was the vessel of a goddess.

And what of Matthew? Baldwin looked up at the underside of the porch roof. Matthew had been gifted his mate but denied the opportunity to make her immortal. Because of his brother’s union, he would have centuries with his Eloise.

Everything he had always held to be true had twisted and shifted. Hugh and Godfrey were gone now and the closest thing he had to a brother was Ysabeau’s son. Both of them were now heads of their own families. Both of them were connected by blood to Diana and their children combined Ysabeau and Philippe’s bloodlines irrevocably.

Text messaging provided more privacy but he needed to say this and be heard. Pressing the phone icon, he waited.

“ _Oui_.”

“Ysabeau, would you come to help my mate? Please.” He asked, knowing he deserved a rebuff.

“I will be there tomorrow.” Ysabeau promised.

“You look pleased with yourself.” Diana told Matthew as she joined him after putting the twins to bed.

“Really?” Matthew asked as Diana settled on his lap. “I can’t imagine why. I’ve just learned that we’ll need to make-do without _maman_ or Marthe for a time. The twins will no doubt use the opportunity to be particularly difficult.”

“Baldwin has asked Ysabeau to come to Madison!” Diana gasped.

“He has. It seems that finding his mate has also given him a mother again.” Diana’s smile was radiant at the thought that another wound in the family was finally beginning to heal.

As Baldwin entered the house, he heard a strange noise. Marcus and Miriam seemed unconcerned but the two vampires in the attic were alarmed. “What was that?” Baldwin demanded.

“The house is adding new rooms.” Miriam explained.

“Do you think it’s the same rooms as last time?” Marcus asked, looking up the stairs. The house had added a room for Nathaniel and Sophie and another for Hamish the last time they’d been here. Baldwin blinked, certain he’d misunderstood. Marcus stood up.

“Come on, I’ll show you.” They made their way upstairs and found two new bedrooms. Marcus whistled as he looked around a particularly fancy Edwardian bedroom. “Are we expecting someone important?” Marcus asked.

“Ysabeau. And Marthe.” Baldwin answered looking into the other bedroom. “Should we tell Sarah about this? It is her house, after all.”

“Not if you want to avoid a whole bunch of questions about how Eloise is doing or when she can come to visit.”

As soon as Baldwin came up to the attic, Phoebe headed downstairs. Baldwin smiled as he heard her grunt slightly as Marcus yanked her into his arms for a hug. In the cosmic balance, while Benjamin had been a fairly catastrophic error in judgement, Marcus had been a great addition to the family. Baldwin wondered if maybe he should make an effort to pull his children more tightly into the fold. It just couldn’t do for Matthew to outdo him on the siring front.

“How was your talk with Phoebe?” He asked instead.

“Nice. It was really helpful to hear about all of this from someone who understands what it’s like. Even though I’m technically old enough to be her mother.” Baldwin nodded. Concerns about relative ages faded quickly for vampires. Settling down on the bed, he caught her hand and brought it to his lips. Eloise immediately moved to settle in his arms.

When she began sniffing at his neck, Baldwin smiled and offered her his wrist. He waited until her teeth had properly clamped down and his blood was flowing into his mate before he made his big announcement. “This is the last meal you will take from me as your maker.” He told her. Her eyes flared and began to pull away but Baldwin used his other hand to keep her at her meal. “Tomorrow, you will start learning to feed yourself, properly.” He explained gently. He understood her worries and addressed them matter-of-factly. “In three months, you will be a fledgling vampire. Then, you will no longer be dependent on me for your survival and will be able to make a reasoned decision.” She’d fed enough and released Baldwin’s wrist after licking the wound closed. Already, she was learning the basics of feeding etiquette.

“What about the mating sickness?”

“Now that you carry my blood and I yours, we should not suffer the effects of physical separation so keenly.” Baldwin told her. “Mating sickness disappears after a full exchange of blood.”

“And I will never again drink your blood?” Eloise asked.

“Oh, you will drink my blood, and I, yours.” He promised. “But you will drink from me as a mate, not your maker. Lovers do not drink from each other’s wrists or neck. We drink from the heart vein.” He touched the thin blue line that was visible beneath the skin of her breast.

“Come, it is time you tested your vampire senses. We can start from the porch.”


	17. Rebecca's First Spell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A (big bit of) Fluffy stuff. (Because I wanted to!)

From the family room where he’d relocated to supervise the twins, Matthew could hear Diana ordering Jack and Alain around like a general on the battlefield. His wife had decided that the time had come to properly catalogue all of Philippe’s personal papers. Everyone was on notice that once this task was completed, Diana would extend the campaign to the Knights of Lazarus archives at Sept-Tours. Jack had been conscripted on the basis that his mother refused to let him loose on the Oxford University Libraries without a basic understanding of library cataloguing approaches and Alain was there as a library technician and translator, sorting the documents into language. Other than Matthew, he was the only person who possessed the necessary language and patience for the task.

“Hey Sprog.” Chris greeted when Matthew connected for their weekly 1:1 and saw Philip on his father’s lap. Hearing Chris’s voice, Rebecca tried to clamber up too, ruthlessly pulling on her brother’s leg in the process.

“Just a second.” Matthew said, reaching down to pick her up. His hand came up empty. Shocked, he jumped to his feet and turned around, looking for his daughter. In his arms, Philip squirmed at his father’s suddenly too-tight hold. “Diana!” His wife came flying into the room. Literally. “Rebecca’s gone! She was here a minute ago and now she’s gone!”

“Uh… Matthew?” Chris’s voice came through the laptop. Matthew turned to the screen and froze in disbelief.

“No.” He whispered. Diana blinked and quickly helped her husband back to his chair. Their eyes glued to the screen, they watched in disbelief as Rebecca bounced on her godfather’s lap roughly 3600 miles away.

“You owe me fifty bucks.” Chris told them cheerfully, cuddling the toddler. Philip thought this was great fun and squirmed in Matthew’s arms.

“Rebecca Arielle Emily Marthe Bishop-Clairmont, you come back here this instant!” Diana commanded. Matthew pounded on the mute button.

“Have you lost your mind? You need to go get her. I don’t want her time-walking all over the world by herself!” He said.

“She did it perfectly two minutes ago.” Diana pointed out reasonably. She was actually very impressed by her daughter’s magic but Matthew was looking frantic. She gently pried his arms from around Philip. “You can’t squeeze the magic out of him, Matthew.” She said gently. Putting him down on the floor, she turned back to the screen only to see Chris now looking around in a panic. A moment later, Rebecca materialised in her father’s lap. Matthew took a deep breath and hugged his daughter. Diana pressed the mute button. “She’s home, Chris.” She told her friend.

“And she’s not alone.” Matthew croaked. Diana spun around and stared in disbelief. Squirming away from Matthew, Rebecca hurried over to the enormous blood red unicorn that now stood in their family room.

“I thought unicorns were supposed to be dainty. And white.” Matthew croaked. “That looks like a Shire Horse. With a mast instead of a horn.” The creature was enormous and terrifying. It’s horn easily reached the ceiling.

“What’s his name, Becca?” Diana asked with a reasonable approximation of calm.

“Fluffy!” Chris started howling with laughter just from the look on Matthew’s face.

“Show me! I gotta see this.” He demanded. Matthew duly turned the laptop to capture an image of the enormous familiar. “Oh, man. Sucks to be you, my friend.” Chris said unsympathetically between gasps of laughter. Diana bit her lip, knowing Matthew was not quite ready to see the humour in the situation.

Aware of some kind of crisis, Jack came strolling into the family room to investigate and stopped when confronted with the very, very large hindquarters of a horse. Making his way slowly around the animal, he smiled at his little sister. “Finally done your first spell! Good for you.” Picking her up, he kissed her forehead. “Come on, let’s get…”

“Fluffy.” Matthew bit out.

“Fluffy settled in.” Jack said, leading the way out to the courtyard. He winked at Diana as he left her to soothe Matthew. Glaring at Chris who was still in hysterics, she closed the laptop.

“Would you like a glass of wine, my love?” She asked. Matthew shook his head and took a deep breath. Then his lips quirked up. “Well, at least my knowledge of horses might come in useful this time. Come on, let’s go get acquainted.” He sighed, standing up.


	18. You Can Choose Your Family - If You're a Vampire

Baldwin was surprised to hear a car approaching the house before dawn the next morning. Ysabeau had made excellent time. Even accounting for an immediate departure and a private flight, he had not expected her before lunch time. “Come, Eloise. It is time you met Ysabeau.” Baldwin announced, holding out a hand.

Eloise was still adjusting to her new strength. She’d already managed to step through the floor in the bathroom and on one of the stair treads. Her new vampire hearing meant that repairs would need to be delayed until she would not be driven mad by the sound.

It was still dark, and far enough from any other property, that Baldwin guided Eloise out onto the porch. It was the first time she’d set foot outside of the house since Fernando had carried her in ten days before. Miriam, Marcus, and Phoebe arranged themselves around them, prepared to intervene if she became overstimulated. “Stand behind me, my love.” He said quietly. “Protect your eyes from the headlights.” The car stopped and a door opened.

“I don’t care who you are! I want to see my sister!” Eloise recognized Vivian’s voice and knew that her sister could seriously harm Baldwin with magic. Desperate to protect him, she launched herself around him ready to take on the other witch. Baldwin’s arm caught her waist and slammed her back into his chest.

Eloise couldn’t help the growl in her throat and tried to escape her mate’s hold. “Phoebe, Marcus.” Baldwin growled as he backed up into the house. Miriam came with them while Marcus approached the visitor.

“Easy, mate.” Baldwin ordered. Miriam positioned herself between them and the door. “Your sister is just here to see how you are.”

“That’s not my sister.” Eloise insisted. Miriam frowned and glanced out the window to check on Marcus and Phoebe.

“It is.” Baldwin insisted. “Shhh… listen, you can hear them talking.” Eloise cocked her head and listened.

“No. Vivian doesn’t screech and she doesn’t stink.” Eloise insisted. Miriam relaxed.

“At least, no more than any other witch.” She muttered. Baldwin shot her a silencing look.

“That whistling sound you hear in her voice is not within warmblood hearing ranges so they don’t modulate them. And all witches have that smell. That’s how you can identify them. It is forbidden for vampires to feed on other creatures.”

“You can let go of me now.” Eloise told him.

“Not just yet, mate.” Baldwin said, adjusting his hold so that he could pull her into his arms and nuzzle her neck. Rolling her eyes, Miriam went back outside to assist with calming Vivian.

“Good morning, _mon coeur._ ” Matthew greeted when Diana entered the kitchen. He was feeding the children their breakfast. Jack had set himself up with an easel near the window and was trying to capture the moment as part of his application portfolio that was due in a few days.

Diana dropped a kiss on Matthew’s lips and each twin’s head before going to see Jack. Matthew’s eyes flickered a warning but it wasn’t necessary. She had felt the tension on her eldest son from the bedroom. Though he was no witch, Jack at times gave off an almost electrical hum when he was tense. That was what had woken her up. _I guess it’s soft-place-to-land time_. She thought. “Give me a hug, Jack.” She commanded in her best imitation of Ysabeau. Matthew’s lips quirked.

Jack immediately folded her in his arms. Just like Philip, Rebecca, and even Matthew; Jack calmed as soon as he fully took in her scent. Diana remembered hearing that one way to calm a human baby was to give them something with their mother’s perfume on it. Clearly, it worked on vampires too. After a few seconds, Jack released her. “Thanks mom. I needed that.”

“I know you did, sweetheart.” Diana told him. “Show me what you’re working on.”

“They are just sketches, for now. I wanted to practice capturing emotion in eyes.”

“Oh Jack!” Diana gasped. The page he’d been working on was covered in pairs of eyes: Philip’s eyes. She pointed to each one in turn and named the emotion. “Happy, worried, interested, hungry.” Jack’s tension further dropped as she demonstrated that he’d achieved his intention. Lifting the page, he revealed very similar images. This time though, it was all Rebecca. “Hungry, happy, stubborn.” Diana laughed. “Matthew, come and see these!” She ordered. Smiling he came to look at Jack’s work.

“I don’t know how you do it, Jack. The shape is so similar, and yet you’ve managed to capture their eyes in a way that it’s easy to see which is which.”

“The twins are easy.” Jack said hesitantly. “You’re more difficult.” Revealing a third page, Jack showed them his studies of Matthew’s eyes. Matthew froze. Like all predators, he had a keen ability to read eyes and body language. He wasn’t accustomed to being studied so closely though and seeing what Jack had captured fascinated him. Diana felt her eyes prickle as she studied the images. She’d once told Matthew that she wished she could weave a spell that showed him how she saw him. Jack had used an entirely different kind of magic: art.

“Are there others?” Matthew whispered. Jack nodded and pulled several sheets from the back of the pad he’d been using, laying them out on the table. Each page had a different theme, with subtle differences between each study. “Happy, annoyed, tired.” Matthew said, looking at each one. Jack smiled, pleased with his father’s efforts.

“Mom, can you see anything more?” Jack asked.

“Oh yes.” Matthew seemed startled. “You have less practice watching your own face.” Diana told her husband. She started with the page of annoyed expressions. “That is when you need to be civilized, but don’t want to. That’s your packing-the-car-before-a-day-out with the children look. That’s your usual expression when you are speaking to Baldwin, though less since he’s been mated. That one is your explaining-vampire-rules-to-witches look. And that one is your bad-puppy look.” Jack laughed at Diana’s description of how Matthew looked at his children when they displeased him.

Moving to the tired page, Diana pointed to the images in turn. “Physically tired, mentally tired, emotionally exhausted, just impatient.” The happy page showed Matthew’s eyes after a good hunt, when playing with the children, or teasing Diana.

“There’s one more page.” Jack admitted, opening the sketch pad about midway.

“Love.” Matthew breathed. “You, Marcus and Phoebe, Phillip, Rebecca…” Matthew pointed at each pair of eyes, ending on the ones in the centre. “Diana.”

“Nice job, dad.” Jack congratulated, as if he hadn’t been the one to capture the subtleties of Matthew’s gaze with such precision. Reaching out a hand, Matthew pulled Jack forward, pressing their foreheads together. Diana rubbed a hand up and down Matthew’s back until he released their son.

“I know this is part of your portfolio,” Matthew said. “But when you get them back, I’d like to have the entire series framed.”

“I can do better ones for you dad. Just tell me which ones you like.”

“No, I love these. All of them.”

“Ok.”

After the excitement of Vivian’s visit, Baldwin announced it was time for more vampire lessons. “It is time you learn to tend to your own needs like washing and dressing.” He told her. “You must be able to remove your clothes, and dress yourself, without making rags of everything.” Thus far, he had been the one to help her. He looked forward to the day when he would rip her clothes off from excess desire, as opposed to her doing so by lack of coordination.

“Couldn’t you show me?” Eloise asked. Learning from Baldwin was much more fun.

“No.” Baldwin frowned. It was hard enough allowing any other creatures, especially vampires, near his mate. He was doing it because it was necessary.

“I don’t want –“ Baldwin’s growl stopped Eloise cold. Beside her, Miriam nodded her approval and caught Eloise’s arm and began towing her towards the stairs. Phoebe took a step towards him but Marcus shook his head and nodded towards the door. Mouth tightening, Phoebe dutifully headed outside.

“You’re doing well, Baldwin.” Marcus told him softly.

“I’m doing what needs to be done. She doesn’t understand that yet.”

“No, she doesn’t. You did the right thing. And having Ysabeau here will also help. It will be easier, I think, for Eloise to accept instruction from Ysabeau. For all that Miriam is an ancient vampire, she still looks like a young woman. It can be difficult for warm-bloods to accept elders who look so much younger than they are.”

“Is there any risk that the mating sickness could return now?” Baldwin asked Marcus.

“No.” Baldwin nodded and pulled out his phone, quickly firing off a message to Matthew.

“I think that I must completely entrust Eloise to Ysabeau, Miriam, and Marthe.” He announced while he waited for Matthew to reply. His phone dinged and he checked the answer. “You should leave too, and take Phoebe.” Marcus looked shocked. An instant later, his own phone rang.

“Hi Matthew.”

“You and Phoebe can return to New Haven, Marcus.” His father said. “Baldwin will not be able to leave Eloise with a male vampire in the house and it is out of the question for Phoebe to remain without you.”

“Yes, Matthew.” Hanging up, he looked at his uncle.

“How will you endure being so far?” He asked, thinking of the drama that had resulted when Baldwin had been in New York City while Eloise suffered in Madison.

“I won’t be. Your father purchased a house near Eloise’s.”

Upstairs, Eloise was in full adolescence. While not combative, she was being uncooperative. She’d tried making herself into a dead-weight on the way up to the attic and Miriam had broken her arm and dislocated her shoulder in the process of dragging her upstairs. Though painful, it had only lasted a moment until Miriam ungently popped her shoulder back into place and adjusted the alignment of her humerus. Her vampire blood had done the rest and Eloise had stared in disbelief as the bruising disappeared as quickly as the mark of a slap would disappear on warm-blood skin. It had hurt but only for a moment.

“Ysabeau is arriving today. You will not embarrass your mate by misbehaving or appearing unkempt.” Miriam announced.

“I want Baldwin.”

“Too bad. It is unseemly for you to expect him to play nursemaid. He is your mate and you are making this harder for him than it already is.” Miriam’s scolding elicited a dirty look. When it was met with silent displeasure, Eloise relented, lowering her eyes to the floor.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered. Miriam pointed to a stack of folded clothes. “You will practice dressing and undressing until I come back. Leave those until you are ready to prepare to greet Ysabeau. You must strive to be impeccable when she first meets you.”

Marcus and Phoebe had already left when Miriam came back down the stairs. “It is for the best.” Miriam said when she saw Baldwin’s expression.

“It is too soon for her to be parted from her maker.” Baldwin muttered.

“If there was no one else to guide her, perhaps. Between us, Ysabeau, Marthe, and I have over eight thousand years of experience. Eloise is hardly the first child we’ve raised. We will teach her what she needs to know. What we cannot teach her is how to differentiate between maker and mate, or lust and food. As long as you are nearby, she will struggle to separate them which would be catastrophic.” Baldwin nodded. He knew it was the right thing to do. But he’d heard Eloise’s arm snap and it bothered to leave his mate in the care of such capable but strict teachers. He wanted to give her gentleness but knew that was about his needs, not hers.

“I will expect regular reports.” He warned Miriam.

“You will need to make do with only one daily report, Baldwin.” Ysabeau announced, walking into the house. There’d been no sound of a car. “I came ahead. Marthe is following in the car with the luggage.” Ysabeau turned her cheek, allowing first Baldwin, then Miriam to kiss her in greeting.

“Thank you for coming, Ysabeau.” Baldwin said formally. He slightly ruined it with an uncharacteristically cheeky grin. “I know how difficult it is for you to leave Matthew unsupervised.” Ysabeau’s eyes twinkled.

“The challenge of parenthood, Baldwin. Just when you get one child settled, the other requires attention!” Baldwin laughed. “Come walk with me? I would speak with you before you meet my mate.”

“Of course, Baldwin.”


	19. I Took The Road Less Travelled By

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin has something to tell Ysabeau and Matthew has a question for Jack.

They headed into the woods while Baldwin collected his thoughts. As always, Ysabeau waited patiently, giving him the mental space he needed.

“Once I introduce you to Eloise, I will leave. Will you guide and guard her for me?” Baldwin finally asked in Latin. Ysabeau could calibrate her children’s emotional state with precision based on which language they chose. Matthew, who had learned Latin at university, he used the language when he was running cold but did not want Diana or the children to understand what he said. When he was completely overwrought, he lashed out in Occitan or Old French. Baldwin used it as a living language.

“As I would my own child.” Ysabeau promised in the same language.

“I wish I could have given her the same experience as Phoebe had.” Baldwin admitted.

“Of course, you do. But that was not possible. Mating pangs are a sign of an extraordinarily strong bond, Baldwin. That may bring you some comfort in the centuries to come, but at the moment the pain of it is too fresh.”

“I thought I could be the one to guide her through this. But I cannot. I somehow imagined that, especially after how challenging Miyako was, I could handle any siring.” Ysabeau laughed. Though Baldwin had not said anything about parenting his youngest daughter, Miyako had had plenty to say about her sire’s approach to parenting. Baldwin was not given to gentle parenting. It had taken almost three centuries for Miyako to speak without permission in Baldwin’s presence. She was a very dutiful daughter but a holy terror with everyone else. Gallowglass had the scars to prove it. “When I drank her life blood, I discovered that Eloise has read many, many love stories with vampires. I wanted our pairing to live up to those stories.”

“Pah! I read one of Sarah’s vampire romances.” Ysabeau said. “And Diana occasionally reads them deliberately to goad Matthew. Leave modern romance to humans who have only a few short decades to approximate a mating. There will be time for indulgence later.”

“I know.” Baldwin muttered. He promised himself that someday, there would be flowers and gifts. Now was not the time for that.

He stopped and turned to Ysabeau. “There is one more thing I would say. You were my father’s mate. I was wrong to disrespect you, especially since his death.”

“It was reasonable in light of the blood rage that I carry.”

“It may have seemed so. Of course, Matthew’s research suggests that blood rage may lurk in Phillippe’s bloodline as well as any other. We have just been lucky not to sire the wrong warm-bloods.” Baldwin shrugged. “But that is neither here, nor there. You are father’s mate and I foolishly dismissed that as a lesser link than a blood. I would change that, Ysabeau. If you will allow it, I would honour you as my mother from this day forward.” Ysabeau inclined her head and stepped forward, kissing Baldwin gently on each cheek. He grinned at her. “You missed Diana and Matthew’s wedding, _maman._ You will now get to host mine.” With that, they returned arm-in-arm to the house.

Eloise was duly presented when Baldwin and Ysabeau returned to the house. Miriam had prepared her as well as possible for the encounter, filling her head with any number of instructions about how to address Ysabeau.

“ _Maman,_ may I present Eloise of the Harrison family, recently member of the Congregation’s Witch delegation. Eloise, this is my mother, Ysabeau de Claremont.” Miriam’s eyes widened at the change in Baldwin’s acknowledgement of Ysabeau as family. Clearly, mating was a particularly powerful force for de Claremont men. Eloise was confused. Just a few days ago, Baldwin had corrected her when she’d referred to Ysabeau as his mother. Ysabeau did not pretend to miss the confusion.

“My _son_ and I are now united. You will be my daughter.” Ysabeau kissed Eloise on each cheek. “Take your leave, Baldwin. There is no time to lose with Eloise’s training.” Pulling her forward, Baldwin kissed her hard.

“I am entrusting you to the best teachers a young vampire could have, Eloise. Obey them in all things and our separation will quickly pass.”

“Separation?” Eloise asked. Too late, Baldwin was gone.

In France, Matthew had been considering his most recent parental challenges. He wasn’t sure he could do much to control Rebecca though he knew that he and Diana would need to consider some degree of spell-binding. Philip was the most eager-to-please child he’d ever known. Though he hadn’t told Diana, Philip had much in common with Lucas. He’d clearly inherited much from his father’s human side. Rebecca was unmistakably built out of his vampire DNA. He hadn’t tested her but he’d seen glimmers of blood rage that would require a firm hand. If his children really were puppies, Philip was like a labradoodle and Rebecca was more of an Alsatian-wolf hybrid. She needed the constant structure of pack hierarchy.

Jack was his other pressing thought at the moment. Heading up to the room that his elder son used as a bedroom and studio. He could hear Jack playing the Duchess of Marlbourough. Jack was as adept on the cello as he was with a pencil. The piece he was playing was a very bawdy Tudor drinking song but with a definite New Orleans vibe. He waited until the song ended before tapping on the door.

“Come in!” When he saw Matthew, he bit his lip. “Sorry dad, was I being too loud?”

“No, of course not. I could barely hear you so I’m pretty sure Diana couldn’t. And the twins aren’t sleeping anyway.”

“Oh, good. I just needed a bit of a break.” Jack nodded to the open textbook on the desk. The university required all students to pass an English writing proficiency test and Jack had asked Matthew to help him prepare.

“That’s fine, Jack.” Matthew reassured him again. “Did you tell Andrew about applying to university?”

“Yeah. He thinks it’ll be a breeze for me – as long as I keep my blood rage under control.”

“Words to live by.” Matthew said drily. Jack cocked his head to the side.

“You didn’t come up here to talk about Father H.”

“No, I didn’t.” Matthew agreed. “I was hoping that you’d show me your pages of Diana’s expressions.” Jack’s eyes shot to his desk. “It’s not an order, Jack. You can say no.”

“How did you know I’ve done them?” Matthew chuckled.

“Because how could you not?” Jack set the cello aside and collected a sheaf of papers that had been sitting under an Atlas of The Human Body for Painters book and handed them to Matthew then waited silently for his judgement.

The sketches of Diana extended beyond just her eyes. Most included her eyebrows or even her hairline with the markings of the Tree of Life peeking out. Matthew could see in these pictures what Diana had seen in the pictures of him. He chuckled when he found his wife’s bad puppy expression. “This one is my favourite.” He said, pulling one particular one from the pile. It was an expression that Diana had perfected in recent weeks. Clearly, Jack had interpreted as a _just wait until we’re alone_ look but Matthew recognized it as a much more promising glance. Whenever Diana threw that his way, he wanted to declare it was bedtime for everyone. That one was going to go up in their bedroom.

“Take it. I have plenty of other ones to include in my portfolio.” Jack cleared his throat. “Do you remember the night I… redecorated Gallowglass’s house?” The night Baldwin had ordered Matthew to kill Jack and tipped the scales to establishing the Bishop-Clairmont scion. “Chris was saying that you really liked the picture of mom that I did then.” Matthew had missed the moment when Jack and Diana had first seen each other but it had featured in the incredible mural that Jack had created while in a blood rage a few nights later. He’d taken a picture of it but didn’t realise he’d been seen doing it.

“I did. I guess it was the moment she first recognized you.”

“It was. I made a better version for you.” Jack told him, retrieving another sheet of paper. This time, he’d experimented with pastels. “That’s what gave me the idea to do those studies of eyes. I was trying to figure out what it was about mom that just made me know I was home in that instant. I don’t think I’ve seen her look like that since.”

Matthew had. When he’d come back to from New Orleans or when he’d first been able to see her after the rescue in Chelm. Diana only made that face when she knew that someone she loved wasn’t lost after all.


	20. Blood daughters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daughters are complicated creatures.

“Well now.” Ysabeau said, looking at her new daughter. Everything else aside, this was a child of Phillippe’s blood. For that reason alone, she would forgive much. That didn’t mean she planned on telling Eloise as much. “How far have you gotten?” She asked Miriam as Marthe joined them.

“Fernando dropped off a blood tasting kit this morning.” Miriam said. 

“Eloise, this is Marthe, my attendant. Marthe, this is Eloise, Baldwin’s mate.” Marthe inclined her head politely and Eloise automatically mirrored the gesture. 

“Members of the de Clermont family do not bow to retainers, Eloise.” Ysabeau told her firmly. “Now that Baldwin is gone, you will apply yourself to learning to be a vampire. As Baldwin’s consort, you must always live by the highest principles of vampire honour.” Eloise nodded.

“It will be hard not to have him here, but it may make some things easier if he is not here to see me struggle or fail.”

“You will not fail.”

Late in the afternoon, Matthew found Diana in the room at the top of the North tower that she had declared her laboratory. Part stillroom, part laboratory, and part sanctuary; Matthew tried to enforce a strict Do Not Disturb policy when Diana retreated there. But she’d been up there most of the day and there was something they needed to discuss.

Tapping lightly on the heavy door, Matthew waited to be invited in. “Introite!” Diana called, making him smile. 

“Is my father’s ghost visiting again?” Diana tended to forget to revert to modern English when she’d been speaking with the spectre.

“He was. He came to tell me that _Fluffy_ is as close as Rebecca can get to pronouncing Persephone. He is most impressed with his grand-children’s familiars. And magical talents.” Matthew took a deep breath.

“That’s actually what I came up to discuss, Diana.”

“Yes, I know.” She leaned back in her chair and Matthew took the other seat, turning it so that he was straddling it and could rest his forearms against the backrest.

“I know that I said I didn’t want to test the children’s blood.” He began, “But I am beginning to worry.”

“Beginning?” Diana quirked an eyebrow at her beloved vampire. 

“Yes. Alright. I’ve been worried for some time. But what Rebecca did yesterday. It terrified me.” Diana nodded and looked away. Matthew didn’t need Jack’s studies to recognise his wife’s expression. Determined and guilty.

“What have you done?” He asked. Diana looked down at her wrist and scratched it.

“When Baldwin demanded that you test the children, you refused.” Diana began. “You told me that you wanted them to figure out who they were, not be told by blood tests.”

“Yes.”

“And as vampires, they will live in a world of secrets. That would be true even if they weren’t the children of Matthew Clairmont.” Matthew nodded.

“I thought about what the Book of Life could tell me about our children and what it would cost. If I could see everything and avert every challenge they will ever face, what then?”

“You’ve hidden the knowledge.” Matthew said softly. She nodded.

“I asked the goddess for guidance and she has made it such that the Book of Life will not reveal the children’s secrets.” Showing him her wrist, he could see that unlike the rest of his wife’s body, there was now a mysteriously blank patch of skin. He ran his thumb over it and the silver chain that bound them flashed beneath his touch, disappeared under the patch, and reappeared on the other side like a fish disappearing beneath a boat.

“You did the right thing, _mon coeur_.” 

“I hope so. But I did learn a few things before I hid the knowledge. Philip’s power is grounded in kindness and love.”

“And Rebecca?”

“She is grounded in justice and empathy.” Matthew sighed. Diana let him absorb the information.

“So, we will need to protect Philip from the world and Rebecca from herself.” As always, Matthew had immediately understood the implications of the revelation. Love and kindness were complementary but justice and empathy would inevitably clash. Phillip would need to build up a protective exoskeleton to guard him from an onslaught of demands and appeals. As a member of the Bishop-Clairmont scion, and a son of the family, there would be plenty of options to protect him from outside pressures. 

Rebecca was a different story. Justice and empathy provided opposing answers to almost every question. Those were not questions that she would be able to answer from within the safety of her family’s protection, either. “She has some of my blood rage.” Matthew said quietly. “I can see it, sometimes.”

“Yes. I see it too. I won’t spell-bind her.” Diana warned.

“I would not allow it.” Matthew retorted. “There are other ways to manage blood rage.” Jack was proof of that, so was Matthew.

“But we do need to find some way to keep her from using magic like she did yesterday.” Diana nodded.

“I’ve been working on a spell. It’s what I was doing when you came in.”

“What kind of spell?”

“A simple one.” Diana said, holding out her cupped hand. “I just need a bit of your blood.” Matthew didn’t hesitate to rip open his wrist with his teeth and let it drip into Diana’s hand. She smiled and in her other hand conjured a ball of energy like the one she’d offered him in the woods the first time she flew. Matthew licked the wound on his wrist closed while she blended the two substances. She reached out and he knew she was adding threads he could not see to her spell. 

After a moment, there were two jewelled amulets in her hand. Emperor Rudolf would have coveted them desperately. “That should do it.” She said, offering them to Matthew.

“Do what?”

“Rub them.” Diana invited. Matthew swiped his thumb over one of the jewels and felt an invisible tug.

“The amulets will guide the children back to us in the present no matter what.” Diana explained. 

“And how are they supposed to carry these around all of the time? They seem to have enough trouble just keeping their clothes on!” It was true. The twins were in a clothing-optional phase at the moment.

“Their familiars will carry them. No matter where they go, or when, they cannot escape their familiars for an instant.” Matthew smiled. “Apollo and Persephone can ensure that the amulets are always within reach.”

“He isn’t hunting Eloise’s pets, is he?” Sarah asked as she joined Fernando near the kitchen sink. Baldwin had shown up shortly before lunch time and headed out to the back garden. He was now crouched near the rabbit hutch in a position that Sarah was certain would be impossible for a non-vampire to hold for more than a moment. Eloise had indulged her creative impulses and decorated the hutch as if it was a teenage girl’s room complete with silly teen-magazine-like pictures of studly rabbits and a sign that forbade entry by male rabbits. Nearby, a second hutch housed the male rabbit and was decorated with various super-hero like bunnies. 

“No.” Fernando assured her. “I think he might be trying to bond with them.” The sip of coffee that Sarah detoured out her nose at that notion. The cute bunnies seemed inclined to agree with Sarah and were cowering as far back in their space as they could. 

“Why?”

“At a guess? He saw how much they mean to Eloise when he drank her blood. They are under her protection so they are now under his protection.”

“I guess we should be grateful that he didn’t decide they were rivals for her attention.”

“Eloise certainly should be.”


	21. It's in The Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris visits Matthew for a show-and-tell.

Diana and Matthew were working in the library after breakfast when Matthew’s phone pinged. Glancing at it, he shrugged and returned to the article he was typing. After a few moments, he looked at the message and frowned. “Chris will be here for lunch.” He told Diana. “One of us will need to head into the village for provisions.” Chris was the perfect guest for a French vampire household. His favourite French food consisted of charcuterie, cheese, baguette, and wine: all foods that were served cold and which Matthew could enjoy in small amounts.

“He must have found something with Baldwin’s blood.” Diana said.

“Something important if he decided to hop on a plane and come out to tell me in person.” Matthew agreed. Shutting down her laptop, she skirted her desk and went over to drop a kiss on Matthew’s lips.

“I’ll be back before you know it.” She promised.

“Certainly. You’ve had such success in the past going into the village on market day and not getting roped into conversations with everyone and their cousin.” Diana groaned. Market day was a big deal in French towns. Everyone turned out to buy the best local produce and find bargains on clothes and household goods. It was also a weekly gossip conference where all the news of the surrounding area flashed through the community. As Madame de Claremont, Diana was the person everyone wanted to tell their secrets to. A good problem to have but it was quite time consuming too. Reaching up, Matthew squeezed one of her bottom cheeks affectionately. “Try not to linger.” She tried to give him her bad puppy look but completely missed the mark.

Chris made good time and arrived just as Matthew was returning with his children, the dogs, and the familiars from a quick walk to burn off excess energy. It was a routine he enforced multiple times a day on the whole family, regardless of weather. A few laps around the moat tended to stabilise everyone. “Fluffy’s huge!” Chris blurted, looking up at giant unicorn that now sported an exotic looking gem on a heavy chain. Apollo wore something similar.

“Yeah. But pretty calm natured.” Jack said, patting the creature’s neck as he approached Chris with a hand extended. Chris used the hand to pull the young vampire into a bearhug. Matthew held the twins back for a moment but released them when Jack stepped back.

“Unka!” Rebecca squealed, launching herself at the closest thing to an uncle on Diana’s side of the family. Philip just leaned against Matthew’s leg, waiting for an invitation. It wasn’t long coming.

“Come into the house, Chris. Jack, can you get the animals settled please? Make the twins help.”

“Sure dad.” Holding out a hand to each of his younger siblings, Jack merely whistled and the dogs and familiars followed them towards the stables.

“This is for you.” Chris said, pulling two coolers sealed with biological sample tape. “I’ll just move the car so Diana can park when she gets back.

By the time Chris was done, Matthew had poured them each a glass of wine and was waiting in the kitchen. He had placed the boxes on the counter but otherwise hadn’t touched them. “Gameboy struck again.” Gameboy, or Jeanette, was one of Chris’s grad students. She had a unique knack for noticing things that others missed. Moving one box to one end of the counter, Chris set the other one at the opposite end before he opened it and fished out a rack with several vials of blood. “Open that one, will you?” He asked Matthew. When Matthew had lifted a second rack of samples out, he frowned.

“These samples have congealed.” He said, frowning. It was clear they had been left on their side too long and without anticoagulant, they had set into a gelatinous blob along the glass sides rather than pooling normally at the bottom.

“Watch carefully.” Chris carried the other rack closer and as the samples neared each other, the blood slid back down like a normal liquid. Matthew gaped. “Yeah.” Chris said, moving away again. Once more, the blood in all but two of the vials flowed up the sides of the vial in a gravity-defying wave.

Putting down his samples, he walked over to those Chris was holding. Here too, there were two normal vials but the other samples were raised against the side of the glass.

“What am I seeing?” He asked Chris.

“This,” Chris said, picking up three of the vials. “Is Eloise’s blood. The first sample she donated as part of the CDSP.” The Creature DNA Sequencing Project had been launched by the Congregation to help collect biological samples for research purposes. Every member of the Congregation donated as a matter of course. “This one Fernando collected when she had mating pangs. And the final one we got after she’d been turned.” Walking back to the other samples, he lifted two more vials. “These are Baldwin’s samples. We didn’t get one while he had the mating pangs.” He handed Matthew the two post-turn vials. They looked normal. Matthew placed them in the rack then accepted the next two vials.

Those two are from before Baldwin and Eloise even met. Move them closer to each other and apart.” Matthew watched carefully as he moved the two vials apart arms width. The blood flowed up the sides as if trying to get closer. When he brought the two vials together, the blood settled down normally. Fascinated, he moved his hands closer and farther apart a few times.

“Our hypothesis is that mating pangs are the result of this happening in the blood vessels. Once the two mates have thoroughly mixed blood, it stabilises.” Chris said as Jack joined them with the twins.

“No, papa!” Philip howled in tone that was more usual with Rebecca. There was no mistaking his fury as he fisted his hands and pulled them together. The vials flew out of Matthew’s hands and smashed together, instantly mixing the blood in a gory mess on the counter. The blood frothed and rippled as it mixed. The racks also slid towards each other, but with considerably less force. Philip burst into tears and Matthew hurried over to collect him.

“Shh… it’s okay.” With his son tucked under his chin, Matthew turned disbelieving eyes to Chris.

“The blood in the other vials?”

“These two are controls, no affinity at all with each other or any of the other samples.” Chris said to two of the vials. “And these two are familial samples from Eloise’s sister and Gallowglass. They have slight affinity but nothing like the pre-turn blood we got from Baldwin and Eloise.” Matthew frowned.

“What about my samples and Diana’s?” Matthew asked, taking Rebecca from Jack so his son could clean up the mess. His daughter was looking entirely too interested in the blood.

“We don’t have the physical samples anymore. Only the DNA sequences and with only Baldwin and Eloise as examples, we will struggle to correlate DNA to blood behaviour. And your son has just destroyed the last of the pre-turn samples.” Noticing his younger siblings’ interest, Jack turned to the fridge and immediately poured out two sippy-cups of the water-blood mixture they called juicy-juice. Rebecca reached out to Chris and they all settled at the kitchen table to regroup. “Jack, tell me about what’s new with you.” Chris ordered, as much to give Matthew time to think as to include the younger vampire.


	22. Make it Stop!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, screamy juice is a thing now. Who knew?

Diana knew something was wrong as soon as she arrived. Even from the courtyard, she could hear Philip screaming blue murder and smell the four resident vampires. An unfamiliar rental car suggested that Chris had arrived.

Hefting the two bags of provisions, she left the boxes of wine bottles in the car.

“What took you so long?” Matthew demanded as she came in. He was holding on to Philip who was writhing and kicking to get away from him. There was so much magic in the air that it was hard to breathe.

“Stop it! It’s not mom’s fault!” Jack snapped at Matthew. In an instant, Matthew had him pinned to the wall with his forearm pressed to his throat. Philip still fighting to get away.

“What on Earth is going on?” Diana asked Chris who was holding an exceptionally subdued Rebecca.

“My fault.” Chris said with a shrug. “Can you incinerate those samples? And there might be some left-over blood on the counter.” Waving her fingers, Diana launched a wave of witchfire over the counter that consumed the coolers, racks, and blood samples. It flared over a patch on the counter before burning itself out.

Philip immediately settled down, the magic dissipated and Matthew blinked, looking confused. “You ok, Jack?” He asked, immediately stepping back.

“What happened?” Jack asked. He nodded at Matthew and clapped his shoulder in a gesture of reassurance that Matthew usually used.

“Philip got mad.” Chris said calmly. “Then Matthew and Jack got mad.”

“About what?”

“Blood samples.” Diana blinked. That was not the answer she’d expected. All of Matthew’s vampire family routinely consumed glasses of blood when they visited. There’d never been any problem at all. A half-vampire, half-witch child who found small amounts of blood objectionable and used magic to express that was going to be a problem.

“Any specific blood?”

“Baldwin and Eloise’s pre-change blood samples.” Matthew answered, then quickly explained what Chris had come to show him.

“Screamy juice.” Rebecca offered, offering her bloody thumb to Matthew like she often did with her food. Matthew looked at Diana frantically.

“Maybe you’ll be able to understand what they can’t yet explain?” Matthew shrugged and licked the small thumb, closing the wound Rebecca had bitten into her skin while she sucked her thumb. Matthew’s eyes went wild.

“They could hear the blood screaming.” He said before succinctly explaining what Chris had shown him.

“How can this have gone undetected for so long?” Chris asked.

“It’s extremely rare.” Matthew pointed out. “I haven’t even heard of another case in over a century. And back then, there were many more creatures than now. But even so, they did not mix much to discover the affinity. Let alone a case as severe as what Baldwin and Eloise experienced.”

“And the Covenant didn’t help.” Diana said as the Book of Life gave her the answer. “As long as the creatures stayed away from each other, the mating rage pairs had almost no chance of crossing each other.”

“Is it only possible for vampire-witch pairs?” Matthew asked.

“No, it can also happen with humans or daemons.” Diana said as the Book of Life paraded the answer across her eyes. “We cannot keep this from the Congregation.”

“No, but we must warn Baldwin, and Marcus, first. The de Claremonts and the Knights of Lazarus must have advanced notice. The thought of what Gerbert will do if he learns of this is unthinkable. We must be ready to step in.”

“Thankfully, the Bad Seed isn’t around to find out about it.” Chris muttered. Diana shot him a quelling look. It wasn’t good for Matthew to be reminded of Benjamin.

Baldwin stared at his phone in disbelief. Matthew’s message was simple. **7T, lèu & MW**. Sept-Tours, fast with Marcus. Even if being called away from his new mate was not enough to sound alarm bells, Matthew sending text speak messages certainly was. He wasn’t the kind of vampire to adapt to youthful trends.

**7T, lèu & B2C**. Marcus frowned at his phone. He’d never really managed to get fluent in Occitan so Matthew using made up abbreviations to text him in the language was not a good sign. Barely ten seconds after the message arrived, Baldwin called.

“Do you know what this is about?”

“No. But under the circumstances, I can’t imagine that it’s anything less than a major crisis. Will you be alright so far from your mate?” Marcus remembered how difficult his separation from Phoebe had been when he’d gone to New Orleans with Matthew. Baldwin would certainly struggle.

“Whatever it is, Eloise is safer at a distance with Ysabeau and Miriam.” Baldwin said grimly. “I’ve called for a helicopter. I’ll see you at the airport.”

Diana yawned as she tried to settle Rebecca to sleep. She’d tried the rocking chair but had eventually urged Matthew to try that with Philip. The children were clinging to their parents like glue and the nursery was crowded by the presence of their familiars who were clearly unsettled. Looking around the room, she could see twisting red and black threads wrapping around her children and husband. She’d had to use Jack’s sleeping spell three times before their elder son had been willing to let his family out of his sight. Chris had succumbed to jet lag some time around eleven o’clock.

When Diana yawned again, Matthew stopped. “Come, we’ll take them to our room tonight.” He ordered, offering his hand.

In their bedroom, he discovered that Philip was still unwilling to release his chokehold on Matthew’s neck. Rebecca was still uncharacteristically silent, her eyes wide as she clung to her mother like a limpet. Kicking off his shoes, Matthew lay down on the bed and extended an arm so that Diana could settle near him. Between them, they held onto their children. When Diana and the children finally fell asleep, Matthew just held them tighter. Even as Queen Elizabeth’s Inquisitor, he’d never a sound as terrified as what he’d heard in Philip’s memory. He would not leave his family for a moment.


	23. Not All Truths are Good to Share

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin and Marcus arrive at Les Revenant

By morning, the twins were beginning to recover from the previous day’s events. Matthew wasn’t though and was quite happy that his mate and his children all seemed determined to cluster near him. The fact that Philip had felt it necessary to specify _quiet juice_ told Matthew that the unease would linger for a time.

He was making scrambled eggs for Diana when Marcus and Baldwin arrived. Rebecca allowed Baldwin to take her but Philip still refused to let go of Matthew’s leg for either Marcus or Jack.

“What’s wrong, Becca?” Baldwin asked, his body instinctively adjusting to give the toddler as much shelter as possible. Diana returned and greeted the new arrivals with a kiss on each cheek. Matthew noticed Baldwin and Marcus’s noses twitch. Diana was still putting out more than her usual level of adrenaline and her blood song was subdued.

Matthew took Diana her breakfast and he and Chris began relating the events of the day before to Marcus and Baldwin.

“I’ll need to reconvene the Congregation so they can be told about this.”

“No.” Baldwin, Marcus, and Matthew chorused.

“I thought we were done with hiding discoveries.” Chris muttered. Baldwin and Matthew exchanged a look and Matthew nodded.

“There are several issues at play here, Chris.” Baldwin began. “The first is that we don’t know how many pairings like this exist. If you are right and there is a familial element, then it will only exacerbate the resentments that already exist as a result of Diana becoming a de Clermont and the Book of Life. As it is, the safety of Diana and the twins is a matter of constant effort for the Knights and the de Claremonts in addition to Matthew.”

“But I lead the Congregation!” Diana protested.

“And that gives you an extra layer of protection. Anyone who harms you would not only face your power, but me, the de Clermonts, the Knights, and the Congregation.” Matthew explained. Chris whistled.

“That has to make you the safest person in the world.”

“But also, the most in danger.” Jack said softly.

“For now, knowledge of the twins’ abilities is a closely guarded secret. But if it becomes known that they are able to detect strong matings?” Baldwin shook his head. “Too many vampires have dreamt, for centuries, of finding that mate. Not all of them would be honourable about turning that mate if they could.” Baldwin’s words clearly hit a nerve and Matthew looked away.

“A century ago, I turned a woman, Cecilia, without her consent.” He said softly. “She could not bear it and walked into a burning building to end her existence.” Marcus whistled.

“That’s why you were so angry when I tried to turn James.” Matthew had always been adamant that Marcus gain consent before turning anyone. Even though his attempt to sire James had failed, Matthew had read him the riot act over it. Now he understood why his father was so uncompromising on this rule.

“Yes.”

“Diana, you know how dangerous people can be when they want to believe something, even if it is not true.” Baldwin said, his hand rubbing Rebecca’s back. The toddlers seemed to be finally bouncing back from their ordeal. Though she remained on Baldwin’s lap, Becca was now content to be cuddled instead of clinging to him and Philip had let Jack take him on his lap.

“What did you see in Becca’s memory?” Diana asked.

“The blood was screaming.” Matthew said quietly. “A combination of rage, pain, and fear like nothing I’ve ever heard.”

“Even after it was mixed?” Chris asked with interest.

“Yes, there were drops that remained unmixed on the edges and that was enough. It’s no wonder they were traumatised. I’ve never heard anything like it and I have been present when people and creatures were tortured to death.”

“We cannot take the risk that this becomes known beyond those of us present.” Baldwin insisted.

“Except for Miriam. She will need to be told. We will need her help to put in place protocols for managing blood samples from the CDSP samples.”

“And Jeanette.” Matthew added. “She was the one who discovered the effect. We need to bring her into the loop. And she will need protection as well.”

“She is finishing up her postdoc next month. I know she likes working with you, Matthew. I’m sure there would be no difficulty in convincing her to work out of your Oxford lab.”

“I’ll arrange a position for her through the university.” Matthew agreed. “It will take a bit of time, but I don’t want her in Oxford until Miriam can join her and that won’t be until Eloise fledges.”

“Six weeks, at least.” Baldwin said grimly.

“That’s right! In all the excitement, I didn’t give you a proper congratulations on your newly complicated life!” Chris exclaimed, clapping Baldwin on the shoulder.

“Neither did we.” Matthew admitted. “We will look forward to your wedding.” To everyone’s surprise, Baldwin suddenly looked shy. Pleased, but shy.

“I would ask something of you, Matthew. Would you stand in for me as head of the clan for our mating vows, and as my best man for the wedding?”

“I would be honoured.” Matthew answered while Marcus explained to Chris.

“The mating vows are the traditional vampire equivalent to a wedding. But because we’re all so medieval, it involves the elders of the couple agreeing to the match. For Phoebe and me, Baldwin acted as the head of clan and Miriam gave her consent as Phoebe’s maker. Matthew gave his permission as my maker and father. But because Baldwin is Eloise’s mate, maker, and head of clan, and his maker is no longer with us, he can ask someone else to stand in for any of those roles. And by French law, Baldwin and Eloise will only be married if they sign a marriage contract at City Hall. That ceremony must, legally, be overseen by the mayor.”

“Ysabeau has already agreed to stand in, as my maker.” Baldwin said quietly. “I will leave it to Eloise to choose who will stand as her maker for that ceremony and witnesses for our wedding. Which leaves me short only one witness.” Baldwin said. “Marcus, would you perform this duty?” Diana bit back a smile. Marcus was stunned but honoured, Matthew was puffed up with pride, and Baldwin seemed more at peace than she’d ever seen him.

“Who knew you big, bad vampires were such sentimental goofs.” Chris muttered when it seemed the moment would overwhelm everyone. Baldwin wasn’t quite done yet.

“And Jack, you will watch over your brother and sister that day. Matthew, Marcus, and I will no doubt be distracted and they must be protected at all times.”

“Of course, Baldwin.”

“Uncle.” Baldwin corrected with a frown.

“Uncle.” Jack repeated. “Would you like to meet Rebecca’s new familiar? Fluffy is a unicorn.” Matthew bit his lip at the completely inadequate description. It seemed that Jack was willing to deploy a bit of mischief in his own demonstration of accepting this new relationship with Baldwin.


	24. How to Tame Your Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fight or flight isn't much use when there's no where to go and no enemy in sight.

“I’m tired.” Eloise grumbled.

“No, you’re not.” Ysabeau scolded.

“We’ve been at this for days.” It was true. Miriam, Ysabeau, and Marthe had spent literally every hour of every day teaching and testing her. They were relentless. Every detail of her day was regulated and structured to keep her as physically and mentally occupied as possible. “And where’s Baldwin, he hasn’t even called.”

“Baldwin is in France.” Ysabeau told her.

“He just left?” It was one thing for him to step back and give her the space to learn what she needed but something else for him to outright abandon her and just fly off on a French jolly.

“Baldwin is the head of the de Clermonts, the most powerful vampire dynasty in the world.” Ysabeau told her. “Did you imagine that mating would change that?” Eloise looked down. “Enough of this!”

“Ysabeau.” Marthe warned softly.

“No. Eloise, you must now make the decision that no one else can make for you. You must decide now. Will you be worthy of my son or will you be content to be a mere burden for eternity?” The question cut through all the confusion of her own conversion. She hadn’t spent all of her life pursuing purpose to deny it to someone else, especially Baldwin. And she certainly did not want to be the partner who dragged the other one down. She’d rejected a few suitors over the years who didn’t offer the promise of a true partner. The time for self-indulgence was over.

“I will be worthy.” She said softly, meeting Ysabeau’s eyes.

“Very well, then. Tonight, I will take you on your first hunt.”

Diana watched Matthew as she loaded her plate and cutlery into the dishwasher. He was standing at the window watching as Baldwin, Jack, and Chris took the twins down to introduce their uncle to the newest addition to the family. She knew he was also trying to bring his blood-rage under control. The conversation had fired up his protective instincts and he would recover his calm much faster if she helped him. Walking over, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his back. “I’m here, my love. Safe.” A shudder rippled through him.

“Every day, I am humbled by the gifts bestowed on me. You and the children are my world, Diana.”

“But?” She knew there was more.

“But as I told you when Baldwin first met Eloise: along with the joy, there is an agony of fear that comes with love. I know that I cannot, as much as I would like to, lock you and the children away where you would be safe forever.”

“And you _would_ like to.” Moving around him, she rose on her tiptoes for a kiss.

“Perhaps it would help you, _sieur_ , to indulge your desires?” Matthew chuckled. “A bit of chafing would be welcome.” She admitted. Matthew’s eyes narrowed at her double entendre. She craved both the physical friction and the mental constraints that their new love play offered. He wished he could tend to her needs that minute.

“I am certain it would. But not with Baldwin and Chris in residence.”

“Surely Baldwin will return to Sept-Tours? Marcus already has.” The castle was a mere half-hour drive away. Matthew shook his head. “And Chris is human. He’ll sleep and if not, he won’t be able to hear or smell us.” Diana argued.

“Marcus has his mate waiting for him. They are not yet wed a year. Baldwin will struggle to leave us with less than as much protection as he can provide, especially if it is to be in proximity to my pup and his mate. Not now.” Diana laughed softly. “What is so funny?”

“You. Baldwin. For big, tough vampires you do fuss over what others might be doing a lot.”

“Maybe. But when you have lived for centuries and lost so, so, many people and been left to go on without them, it changes you. Warmbloods have a finite time for losses to accumulate and they know that, someday, their souls will be reunited with their loved ones. They have the certain knowledge that someday, the pain of loss will be eased. Vampires can only try to delay loss, knowing that any love we find comes with endless loss.”

“That’s a rather grim view, my love.”

“And yet,” He continued, smiling down at her. “Every day, I am grateful for our love and the love of our children. In the end, I will gladly pay any price to have lived this life.” Lowering his head, he took her lips in a kiss that started out gentle but quickly became demanding.

Having made up her mind to excel at her vampire studies, Eloise soon discovered that she really had been coddled so far. No warm-blood could have survived her induction into this new vampire world. She also knew that Miriam and Ysabeau’s determination to occupy her every thought was borne of kindness. They didn’t want her thinking of Baldwin’s absence.

In that, they failed.

She missed her charming vampire. She wondered what had dragged him to France but knew that there must be an important reason. He wouldn’t like their separation anymore than she did. Now that he was gone and she was feeding primarily on bagged blood, it was easier to consider the emotions she felt for him.

Miriam had given her a Vampire Sex-Ed 101 course that had left her feeling hot and horny for her mate. Unable to find privacy, she’d not been able to scratch the itch for herself but the certainty that the other three vampires in the house could smell her predicament encouraged her to tamp down on her needs.

They had set aside some time for her to explore creative pursuits. Eloise had explained that she had always wanted to pick up embroidery again. It was something her grandmother had taught her as a child. After much discussion, Marthe had been sent out to purchase the necessary supplies including a cream muslin and thread in two shades of green. “We don’t want you to be overcome with too many colours.”

Miriam had explained that vampires possessed more kinds of colour receptors in their eyes. “It can also occur in humans. The scientific term is tetrachromacy. You will have two new kinds of cells in your eyes that allow you to detect variations that are imperceptible to most warm-bloods.”

“Is that why everything looks so rough?” Eloise asked. She’d recently noticed that every single surface seemed improperly finished.

“Yes. It is one of the reasons that vampires seem so excessively precise to warm-bloods. Tiny variations seem glaring to us. But it is true of all of our senses. You will find that all but the most expensive perfumes annoy you. The best perfumes are made from natural scents and carefully blended. A cheap perfume will use synthetic oils and volatiles. They all end up smelling like a petrol pump.” Marthe offered.

“Over time, you will develop the ability to ignore it for the most part. Though you will prefer to live in spaces where you can reduce the stimulation as much as possible. It is one of the great benefits of being a de Claremont. The family’s wealth will allow you to adapt your spaces to precisely your preferences.”

“And you will likely prefer living in old buildings where spending a fortune to have master craftsmen complete work in the traditional ways, will be commended rather than questioned.”

“It will be a great day when humans abandon plastic and synthetic paints.” Ysabeau agreed.

“Fluffy?” Baldwin sputtered, staring at the enormous unicorn.

“Mom says it’s actually Persephone but Becca can’t say that yet.” Jack explained, almost shouting to be heard over Apollo’s enthusiastic greeting of Philip. The griffin wrapped the toddler in his wings, rubbing his head over the small boy and screeching a welcome. It reminded Jack of the way Corra had hugged him when he first reunited with his parents.

In the many years of his life, the three happiest days were the day he’d tried to pick Diana’s purse in Water Lane, the day he’d been reunited with Diana and Matthew after five centuries, and the day his little sister and brother had been born. Reaching down, he reminded himself that he wasn’t the only one in the family without magic. In that respect, he was exactly like Matthew. That didn’t stop him from sometimes wishing he had some of his mother’s blood too.

Sensing Jack’s sadness, Lobero leaned against his leg. “Why do you think Becca’s familiar is a unicorn?” Chris asked. Baldwin shrugged.

“Unicorns can only be captured by a maiden.” He said. “Or so Isidore of Seville believed. Of course, I doubt even he imagined a unicorn such as this.” Rebecca reached out and caught the creature by the nostril and tugged. Chris blinked as the enormous beast seemed to jump into the tiny girl’s body. Philip’s griffin also disappeared in a similar fashion just as Jack growled. Baldwin’s nose twitched and he frowned. “Take her, I’ll be right back.” Baldwin said, shoving Becca into Chris’s arms. In all defiance of basic physics, Becca was no heavier than any child who didn’t happen to be carrying a horse in their body.

In the library, Matthew had given up trying to divine what bit of Eloise’s and Baldwin’s DNA mapped to their strange blood. The fact that Philip had effectively destroyed the samples was unfortunate. Matthew’s mind was taunting him with the challenge of devising experiments that he could not run now. Even so, a single mating pair’s blood samples wasn’t nearly enough to definitively identify what part of the DNA was responsible. And it had to be somewhere in the DNA.

His concentration had been swept away in a tide of chemical signals that Diana’s body was sending out. After their conversation by the window, they’d come into the library to work. Both of them could usually lose themselves in intellectual inquiry. But Diana always started her work day by checking her email and something there had sent her adrenaline soaring again.

It was probably another email from Gerbert or Domenico. They both delighted in dragging Diana, as the de Claremont delegate, into every little squabble they could find. It annoyed Matthew to no end that Diana seemed unable to break her habit of proving she was up for any task and just telling them what they could do with their problems. This morning it had been enough to bring the Congregation back to the forefront of her thoughts.

With the immediate needs of her family seen to, she’d had the mental space to start thinking. Matthew had spent most of the night while he held his sleeping family considering the implications of what they’d discovered. He’d been struggling with the ethics of scientific inquiry and discovery for centuries. Francis Bacon’s _The Novum Organon_ had been heavily based on conversations he’d heard between his brother, Anthony, and Matthew. At the time, Matthew had been trying to balance gaining knowledge of the Bacon brothers’ uncle, William Cecil, without getting anywhere near the wily politician. Phillippe had ordered him to stay well clear of the English court or Burghley’s spies but of course, Matthew hadn’t understood why. Then.

Centuries on, Matthew had long since lost any naïve conviction about the value of sharing all scientific knowledge. Centuries of watching human destructiveness had taught him that some knowledge was simply too dangerous to share, even among scientists. What he hadn’t lost was the habit of examining new knowledge and considering the likely consequences of sharing it. He’d spent all night thinking about the likely effects if it became known that in addition to making the most powerful witch ever known a de Claremont, they now had a way to identify strong mates. Yesterday, they’d explained to Chris that the ability to identify strong mating pairs might lead to mates being turned without consent. That was only one risk. If knowledge of specific pairs got into the wrong hands, it would be easy for a vampire like Gerbert to kill the mate of another vampire before they even knew about each other. One such incident would lead to war between vampires and warm-bloods. The consequences if it was believed that Becca and Philip could detect mates? They would be hounded by those who sought their own mates and those who wanted to prevent others from finding that connection. His conversation with Diana about the core of their children’s personalities drifted back to him. Philip would struggle to resist appeals to his talents and Rebecca could be ripped apart as she tried to balance justice for humans and warm-bloods with empathy.

Now, Diana was using the white table in her mind that she used when confronted with complex problems. She was trying to find a way to align her convictions about scholarship and sharing information with her need to protect her family. Given his wife’s well-documented lack of any sense of self-preservation, he had no doubt that discovering the layers of protection that had been constructed around her had also come as a revelation. The waves of adrenaline and cortisol were becoming more turbulent by the second and an ominous breeze was gathering within the library.

Matthew wasn’t surprised to see Baldwin appear in the doorway. His eyes swept the room, clearly looking for some immediate threat. There wasn’t one. Diana’s body was just trying to process the fact that there was no one to fight and nowhere to run to escape the latest disaster in the making.

“Baldwin! Where are the children?” Diana asked, standing up. Matthew bolted to her side, wrapping an arm around her waist before she became a cyclone.

“They’re in the stable, with Jack and Chris.” Baldwin answered. “I would like to take them to Sept-Tours. They will be happy to see Phoebe.”

“No, they must remain here where they are safe.” Diana insisted unreasonably. Baldwin met Matthew’s gaze.

“Take Jack and Chris too. And my car. It has car seats.” Matthew said, pulling his car keys out of his pocket and tossing them to his brother. The smell of faulty wiring was getting stronger. So was the smell of burning skin as Diana’s crackling fingers let little sparks fly too near his skin.

“Matthew!” Diana objected.

“Go, Baldwin. We’ll come up for supper and to get the children later.” Matthew insisted. Baldwin left and Matthew pulled Diana into a tight hug.

“You’re burning me, _mon coeur_.” He told her mildly. Though the burns were small, they were painful. Unlike normal burns, they would not heal without magic. Diana knew only too well the risk that witchfire presented to vampires. It was, after all, how she had killed Juliette.

It took a moment for Diana to bring her powers back under control. Matthew spent the time trying to get his blood rage under control.

“I want the children back, now, Matthew.” She told him. Her tone reminded him of Sarah trying to put her foot down. No wonder the house made such a show of discouraging the elder Bishop from getting worked up. The Bishop temper was definitely a force to be reckoned with and it had been managing Bishop women far longer than he had.

“Why, so you can burn them too?” He asked, finally pulling her attention away from her own thoughts. As the wind died down, he backed away from her. His fingers drifted to the burn on his thigh, not entirely surprised to find that his skin was more like charcoal than flesh. It was a proper third-degree burn. The areas around it were painful but the worst spot had no feeling at all. Diana paled.

“Oh Matthew!” She breathed.

“Leave it.” He commanded firmly.

“Does it hurt?”

“Of course it hurts. It’s a witchfire burn.” He snapped. “You can’t go around setting your family on fire when you don’t get your way, Diana.”

“I didn’t mean to.” She whispered.

“And Jack didn’t mean to almost kill Suki. That makes precisely no difference to the end result.” Matthew retorted, reminding her of the time Jack had drank too much from the human employed to feed him. “As creatures, we have a responsibility to control our impulses. What if you’d accidentally burned one of the children this badly?” Even if she’d healed it immediately, accidentally harming one of their children to such an extent would be traumatic for everyone. “I _knew_ you needed to continue your training. You’ve fallen back into old habits of letting your worries hijack your brain. You need discipline, Diana.”

“Oui, _sieur_.” Matthew’s jaw clenched. It was so tempting to just carry Diana up to bed and use sex to distract them both from their worries. He didn’t want to distract her though. Not yet. First, he needed to break through her haze of worry. Taking her hand, he led the way up to their bedroom. “We’re going running.” He told her, tossing her some running shorts and a t-shirt and pulling out a change for himself.

He hissed as he pulled the fabric of his jeans away where it had stuck to the burn. The movement caused the damaged skin to come away, leaving a blackened and bloody line across his thigh. His own running shorts would be well clear of the injury. Diana lifted her hand and Matthew shook his head. “I think I’ve had enough magic for one day. Leave it.”

“But I can fix it.” Diana protested.

“No, you can’t.” Matthew told her. “Not until I give you leave.” He knew that Diana would welcome corporal punishment as a way of atoning for hurting him and ridding herself of guilt. If they’d been human, Matthew might have considered it. But his wife was stronger and more powerful than any human and what it would take to help her feel like she had paid for what she’d done was far more than he was willing to apply.

Kneeling right in front of her, Matthew tugged at her hand. “We’re going for a run. But first, give me your witch’s kiss.” He ordered. Confused, Diana leaned down to kiss the spot in the centre of his forehead.

Matthew poured all of the pain of his burn and his worry for her into the connection with his wife. Though he couldn’t see her face from his position, he watched her hands. When they started dripping water onto the floor, he broke the connection and swept her up in his arms, racing out of the house. “Run.” He commanded, despite the outpouring of witchwater. “I won’t let you treat my burns until I’m sure you’ve gotten this out of your system. Go!”

The flow of Diana’s witchwater was strong enough that their feet landed in puddles for the first lap of the moat. Matthew easily kept up though the stretch and pound of each step tugged at the burn. Each lap was a full kilometre. Just the kind of flight that his stressed little witch needed. After five laps, he could tell that her body was shifting gears to produce more endorphins. He wouldn’t let her stop. “You’re not done. Keep running.” He ordered, catching her arm when she headed towards the bridge on the tenth lap.

It took fourteen before Matthew knew that the storm was over. Still, he made her walk a final lap as a cool down. When she staggered, he scooped her up and returned to their bedroom. Going to the bedroom, he filled a cup with tepid water and took it back to her.

“Drink.” Diana wrinkled her nose. Like most North Americans he knew, she liked very cold drinks.

“You’re too hot for something cold.” Matthew told her. “You need to hydrate. Drink.” Looking very subdued, she complied. “Now, go have a shower.” He told her.

“Please, let me treat your burn first.” She pleaded.

“Do as you’re told, Diana.” Nodding, she headed for the bathroom.

She was gone less than ten minutes. When she returned, the way she moved told Matthew that she was feeling much better. He’d taken both of their clothes down to the laundry room precisely so they wouldn’t interfere with his ability to measure her state. He was lying back on the bed, naked. The burn on his thigh and the smaller ones on his chest visible.

“Now?” She asked, staring at the injury. Matthew nodded and immediately felt the coolness of Diana’s healing spell settle on the burns. He could tell she was exhausted. The worry of the night before and trying to sleep with two toddlers in the bed, her brain-storming possible problems earlier, the witchwater, witchwind, and witchfire, feeling his pain through her witch’s kiss, the fifteen-kilometre run he’d put her through, and now using her final resources to heal him was more than she’d been called to do since Chelm. There was one last thing she needed before he could let her rest though.

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he caught her hand and pulled her closer. Lowering his head, he bit into her heart vein. As her blood flowed into his mouth, it brought all of the emotional information he’d known was weighing on her. He drank more than he usually did, knowing it was what she needed too. Her fingers speared through his hair, holding him. There was anger, guilt, fear, resentment at first but gradually, Diana seemed to settle and refocus on her love and care for her family. She didn’t need to run or fight any more, she could let him carry that for her.

Satisfied Matthew licked the wound closed before easily lifting her into the bed. He’d pulled the covers down and now pulled the sheets over her. “Nap time.” He announced, spooning her.

“You’re managing me again.” She said with a sigh.

“Always. Sleep now.”


	25. Let's All Go to Grandmother's House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family fun times. Baldwin's bad idea. And Eloise's worse execution.

The Sun was setting when Matthew pulled into the spot where Baldwin had parked his car. Diana was usually quite insistent about driving but after all of the day’s excitement and some very prolonged love making after her nap, his mate was feeling too mellow to drive.

The walked up to the upper courtyard and found everyone relaxing. Phoebe was reading the twins a story while Marcus served as their pillow. Jack was busy sketching the scene and Baldwin and Chris were discussing the merits of the latest prize-winning boxers over a bottle of wine.

“You’re feeling better.” Baldwin said as he pulled out one of the chairs for Diana. Matthew noticed he hadn’t specified which one of them he was speaking to. The fact that the children hadn’t immediately run to them suggested that their own anxieties had calmed. The body language of their familiars was also an indicator. Matthew considered his elder sons next and decided they both looked fine. It helped him to have his wife and four children together for once. Phoebe’s lips twitched as if she knew he was assessing her too. He was.

“Much.” Diana agreed. “Thank you for looking after the children today. We got a lot done.” _None of it work, of course._

“It did you a world of good.” Chris said. “Matthew too. You don’t look like you’re about to head out on a killing spree.” Matthew chuckled.

“It’s been a rough few day.” He admitted.

“Tell me about it.” Baldwin muttered. Matthew winced. Having been forced to leave his new mate behind, Baldwin was now having to endure being around two couples with very blended scents.

“How is Eloise doing?” Diana asked, in complete disregard of vampire etiquette. Matthew narrowed his eyes at her in warning and her answering look told him she hoped any lessons would be pleasant.

“ _Maman_ says she is applying herself to her lessons.” Baldwin answered. When his eyes flickered to Chris, Diana understood that he didn’t want to disclose more about his mate’s training.

“This mating thing you all do sure plays havoc with lab progress.” Chris muttered. “Is it really necessary to steal Miriam for three months each time one of you finds a mate?” Matthew and Marcus both snorted at the complaint. No one believed for a second that Chris’s frustration was a matter of scientific productivity. He missed Miriam. This bewildered Marcus, Matthew, and Baldwin who had all experienced the lash of Miriam’s displeasure several times in the past. Phobe looked away, proud that her maker commanded such respect.

“I have reconsidered my earlier plans. Diana, you and Sarah will serve as Eloise’s witnesses. I will ask Miriam to serve in place of her maker. We will have the wedding on the same day as the mating ceremony.”

“I’m sorry, Baldwin.” Phoebe began softly, “Are you suggesting that you plan to throw your new mate a surprise wedding?”

“Yes. She will be pleased.”

“Don’t count on it.” Diana retorted. “Baldwin, I’ve known Eloise my whole life. She is not the kind of person who appreciates being backed against a wall.”

“There is no wall. Just the future.” Diana looked to Matthew for help but he just took a sip of wine and made a big production of savouring it so he wouldn’t have to speak.

“Dude. Surprise weddings are not a good idea.” Chris told him.

“Eloise is not some foolish, romantic girl. She’s sensible and practical.” Matthew began choking on his wine and Baldwin helpfully pounded him on the back with enough force to crack a few ribs on a human.

“Baldwin.” Phoebe said firmly. “If there is one day in your life when you should absolutely err on the side of romance, it is your wedding day.”

“How did you ask?” He asked Matthew who promptly evaded the question with more wine.

“Actually, I proposed.” Diana admitted. “Matthew and I had already pledged ourselves to each other but Phillippe insisted on a church wedding.”

“Oh, that sounds like a romantic story!” Phoebe exclaimed.

“Uhm… Not exactly. I’d just killed a witch who was trying to extract my memories. Phillippe announced we should make it official. He said that de Clermonts were made through blood and death but I thought that Matthew should not be forced to formally marry a murderess if he didn’t want to.”

“I’m no fool and immediately agreed.” Matthew said, kissing her hand.

“Sorry, did you say killed?” Chris inquired. “Do you mean accidentally with magic when you were learning to be a witch?”

“No. On purpose. With a dagger straight into the heart.” Diana admitted, watching her friend. Chris leaned back and gave her a huge smile.

“I always knew you were one tough cookie, Samantha Stephens.” Only Baldwin looked confused by the reference to Bewitched. Alain came out with a tray bearing two ice buckets with bottles of Brut de Brut champagne and glasses. He’d also added cups of blood mixed with sparkling water and honey as a mocktail for the twins.

Phoebe and Marcus urged the children to their feet and joined the adults for a glass of champagne. Happy to be reunited with their parents, the twins each climbed into a welcoming lap. “I got it right, though.” Marcus said, bringing Phoebe’s hand to his lips. The spectacular emerald engagement ring winked in the setting sun.

“You did.” Phoebe agreed. “Marcus took me to Paris for a weekend and just in the nick of time, too. It was the weekend before the fire at Notre-Dame. We sneaked up to the top of the bell tower.” Having put his drawings away, Jack joined them, dropping a kiss on Diana’s cheek and a squeeze to Matthew’s shoulder.

“You’re such a show off, Marcus. How’s Uncle meant to top your grand romantic gesture? At his age.” Matthew levelled a stern look at their son. He knew that this was just more of Jack trying to find his new footing with Baldwin but teasing the head of the de Clermonts was a risky game. Jack gave him a cheeky grin and took a glass of champagne. Baldwin took it all in stride though, sitting back with a bemused smile.

“Very well, you’ve all convinced me. I will prepare a proposal for Eloise that will put my upstart nephew, and sister, to shame and Eloise can do the work of planning our wedding with Ysabeau and Marthe’s assistance.”

Dinner was a relaxed affair with the vampires consuming only wine and Chris, Diana, and the twins having a more diverse meal of duck pithivier, tomato and avocado salad, and cheese. Dessert tempted everyone: tiny little raspberry and Chantilly cream parcels wrapped in filo pastry and drizzled with orange syrup.

As the last of the light faded, Matthew assessed his brood. Diana was exhausted despite her nap and the twins had fallen asleep on which ever adult lap they’d happened to move to last. Their familiars were safely tucked away within their small bodies. Jack was showing signs of needing a bit of solitude. Chris was the only one who looked like he was up for a few more rounds of wine.

“Jack, can you drive your mother’s car please?”

“I can drive. I only had a single glass of wine.” Diana muttered with a yawn.

“And that’s one glass too many for a warm-blood.” Matthew told her. “You and the twins will ride with me. Chris, do you want to stay here or come back to our house?”

“Stay, Chris. At least here, you won’t have to keep toddler hours.” Baldwin invited.

“No, I should go. I need to get up early tomorrow. My flight back to the States is at noon and I want to be back in good time to drop off the car at the rental place.”

“Already?” Diana asked. “But you just got here!”

“All impressions to the contrary, this was a business trip, remember? I need to get back to the lab and start working on those new protocols.”

“Don’t worry about your flight, Chris. I need to get back to Madison. I’ll give you a ride. Phoebe, Marcus? Are you coming back with us?” The young couple immediately agreed. “It’s sorted then. You can stay here tonight. In the morning, when you wake up, we’ll swing by Matthew’s so you can get the car and your luggage before we head out.” It was Chris’s turn to be bemused as his last evening in France was neatly rearranged for him. Matthew clasped Baldwin’s arm in thanks.

“Get my sister to her bed, Matthew. She’s dead on her feet.”

“I can take care of my wife, Baldwin. But thanks for a pleasant evening.” Jack reached down and took Rebecca out of Diana’s arms so that she could steady herself with Matthew’s elbow as they walked through the grounds of the castle and down to the cars.

When they arrived home, Jack announced he was taking the dogs and newly released familiars for a late walk before turning in. Matthew and Diana made quick work of getting the toddlers out of their car seats, into the house, into pyjamas, and settled in their beds. Once out of the nursery, Matthew swung Diana into his arms. She raised an eyebrow. “Really?” Matthew chuckled.

“You’re half dead with fatigue, wife. I just don’t want you to fall asleep on the way to our bed. I prefer to make love to you when there’s a chance you’ll be awake for the entire performance.” Standing her on her feet next to the bed, he had her out of her clothes and into one of his t-shirts at vampire speed. “Go brush your teeth and I’ll tell you a bedtime story about a shadowed prince and a very naughty witch.” He promised. Laughing, Diana headed to the bathroom.

“Promise me you won’t tell Baldwin about this!” Eloise begged as they returned to the Bishop house. Miriam hissed at her but Ysabeau seemed amused at the catastrophic finale to Eloise’s first hunt. She’d launched herself at a racoon and startled a skunk in the process. The creature had scored an incredible hit – three vampires in a single spray.

“Believe me, my dear. None of us will ever tell anyone this story. We can only hope that Marthe can get this stench out. Our clothes will need to be burned, of course.”


	26. Old School Romance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin's passing notes in school - and Diana finishes her private lesson with Professor Clairmont.

The buzz of a new message on Miriam’s phone annoyed Eloise who was still denied any gadgetry. She’d never thought of herself as addicted to her electronics but she did miss being able to check her emails or being able to Google any questions. She certainly had plenty of questions she’d like answers to about this vampire thing.

Instead, here she was, practicing writing again. She could now hold a pen, a pencil, and even a felt tipped marker to write and she was managing to make marks on the paper without shredding the surface. It wasn’t exactly writing though. She had discovered that the speed of her vampire hand made it difficult to control the fine movements needed for writing. Ysabeau and Miriam had decided she should practice this skill instead of braving a second hunt just yet.

“I will be back shortly.” Miriam announced after reading the message. She gave Ysabeau a look that Eloise couldn’t decipher but understood to be meaningful. She was gone so fast that no human would have been able to follow her.

Baldwin had opened the door as soon as he hit send on his message. As always, he was grateful that vampires rarely required sleep. He had spent the flight reviewing the portfolio of de Claremont investments and debated the relative merits of lending art to museums or establishing a de Clermont museum and cycling the collection as curated exhibits. Because Phoebe was not a Knight of Lazarus, and Chris was not a de Clermont, the other conversations would have to wait.

The drive back to Madison had given him time to think. Exceptionally, he’d turned his phone off completely so that he wouldn’t be interrupted.

It seemed that, at a molecular level, Eloise was his true mate. They were meant to be together. Call it fate, or destiny, there was something that connected them that could not be broken. He’d felt a shamefully childish pleasure knowing that for all that Matthew and Diana were bound to each other, it was not written in their blood. It was nice to know that even without being part of some great prophesy, he and Eloise had been worthy of the gods’ attention.

The gods. Baldwin had adopted the most convenient veneer of belief over the centuries but when it came down to it, the gods and goddesses of his human life were still present when he wrestled with difficulty.

The gods had decreed that Eloise was for him but could they make her think he was for her?

While he was in France, Baldwin had been fascinated by Matthew and Marcus. He had never particularly paid attention to mated pairs before. Phillippe and Ysabeau had been mated for centuries before Baldwin was reborn and he’d accepted that theirs was a typical vampire mating arrangement. He hadn’t realised that Phillippe had not been the one to turn Ysabeau or that they had each had centuries before meeting to build their sense of self.

Matthew, because of his blood rage, had decided not to turn Diana into a vampire. He’d accepted that in a few short decades, Diana would be gone forever. While he might have happily followed her into death, he could not now. It would be his duty to carry on, caring for their children, and leading the Bishop-Clairmont scion. There was no certainty whether the twins had inherited the longevity of vampires or not.

Baldwin had not had much opportunity, before, to watch Matthew deal with Diana. They were so well matched that Baldwin had imagined they lived in a bubble of perpetual familial bliss. But when he’d smelled Diana’s distress from the stable, it had demanded immediate response. He’d ordered Jack to guard Chris and the children while he raced back to help Matthew fend off the danger. When he’d understood that the only danger was in Diana’s mind, he’d been shocked. Matthew hadn’t been. If Diana’s magic was instinctive, so was Matthew’s ability to understand what Diana needed from him.

Baldwin had no idea how Matthew had managed to bring Diana back to the state of calm serenity he’d seen when they came up to Sept-Tours. He knew that it had taken more than sex though.

Marcus, too, had been a revelation. He was a young vampire, barely two hundred years old, and charged with the responsibility of being Grand Master. For Baldwin, there was not much difference between a vampire at that age and the twins. They are all children.

But Marcus had chosen well. And though he was now responsible for an even younger fledgling, he managed quite well. Baldwin and Matthew had managed a few chuckles at Marcus’s expense. Laid-back and progressive as he might be, Marcus was vigilant and protective of his mate.

Phillippe and Ysabeau. Matthew and Diana. Marcus and Phoebe.

Each of those pairings were completely different and yet inarguably fated.

The realisation was followed by another. He didn’t want his connection to Eloise to be decided by some strange quirk of blood. He wanted a connection of souls, based on love, not blood. Eloise might have weeks to go yet before they could be reunited but that did not mean he needed to cut them off completely from each other. Smiling, he made a plan. Baldwin was good at planning.

“What is that stench?” Baldwin demanded when Miriam arrived. She growled, telling him that it was a subject best left alone. Still, the strange fragrance was eye-watering for a vampire. He’d intended to have their conversation in the house but instead led her out to the back garden. He did not want whatever that was to linger in his new house. He was already struggling with the lingering odours of the family that had lived there previously.

Quickly, he told her what he’d learned in France and the plan that he, Chris, Marcus, and Matthew had come up with.

“All de Claremont, or Bishop-Clairmont, blood is to be routed to the Oxford lab from now on. Any samples in other labs are to be destroyed after sequencing.” Miriam nodded.

“We should route any samples from the Congregation or their family members there too.” Miriam said, considering. “By definition, the representatives are all from particularly strong bloodlines. That may be a factor.” Baldwin nodded.

“Matthew is arranging for a position to be created in the Oxford Lab for someone called Jeanette Xbox?” Miriam’s lips twitched. Chris’s infernal habit of giving people nicknames had clearly been lost on Baldwin who took the nickname to be a last name. “Chris said he’d speak with her about it.”

“I can help her get settled in. But I split my time between Oxford and Yale. Given the implications of this finding, it would be best if there was a vampire who could be assigned as her protection detail for when I am not there.”

“Agreed. Perhaps reassigning Richard from the Yale lab?”

“No. Richard is a lab monkey. This calls for an experienced warrior. Gallowglass would be my choice.”

“Very well. I will tell him.” Baldwin paused.

“And Eloise? How is she doing?”

“She is progressing. We’ve taken her hunting in the woods. She will need more practice before we can risk letting her feed on a human though.”

“Can she dress herself yet? Write?”

“She can dress herself. Ysabeau has allowed her to practice needlepoint, hoping it would improve her ability with delicate tasks but I think that most of the pins we provided are now imbedded in the ceiling of Bishop house. Her writing has improved, slightly, as a result. We suggested that she try keeping a journal but she lacks interest in doing so.” Baldwin nodded.

“Give her this.” He’d chosen the gift with care while he was at Sept-Tour and suspected that Eloise would appreciate it. Miriam nodded and stood. “You will report her progress, and any advances with the blood research, to me in person each day. But please, see if you cannot rid yourself of that smell.”

“Do you honestly think we have not tried?”

Eloise was being scolded by Marthe when Miriam returned. The lingering smell of skunk had been overlaid with a delicious smell of almonds, brown sugar, and vanilla. “I always loved to bake and I can’t even enjoy it now.”

“Nonsense! It is true that you will not find pleasure in eating the way you did as a human but you can enjoy the smell far more.”

“And smells are non-fattening.” Ysabeau pointed out, eliciting a laugh from Eloise.

“Come, Baldwin has sent you a gift.” Miriam announced, offering her the package. “You may prefer to open it privately.” She warned when it looked like Eloise might open it on the spot. Clutching it protectively, Eloise headed up the attic, careful not to damage her new treasure or the house.

Beneath the packaging, Eloise found a beautiful wooden box. It had been made from a yellow wood that she easily identified as apple from the scent and a deep red wood that she didn’t recognize. When she opened it, she found wax, a seal, two glass quills, tips, and ink along with heavy blank vellum and a single sealed letter. Baldwin’s scent rose from the document. Smiling, she snapped the seal and read his words.

_My dearest Eloise,_

_It has been four interminable days since I last held you. Our necessary separation is a maddening torture but need not be complete. I am claiming as prerogative of the head of this family, the right to connect through paper. The centuries have not, as I believed, made me particularly patient._

_I send you this gift, perhaps to add a pleasure to your daily writing practice by giving it purpose. We could get to know each other in the old way, through the exchange of letters. If you write to me, Miriam will bring me your letter. I will endeavour to answer it by the next day so that she can return my thoughts to you._

_Use these sheets and inks to share with me the details of your days._

_With love,_

_Baldwin M._

Instinctively, Eloise knew that Baldwin did not often take the time to write anything by hand. Nevertheless, the habits of communicating in writing were firmly established. His script was a bit too fancy for modern script, probably as a result of learning to write back when the ability to commit ideas to paper was uncommon.

The prospect of sharing her days with him like this was enticing. He’d practically invited her to ask any question she liked. She would start with something not too philosophical or intrusive. Leaving his letter open on the bed, she moved to the small desk where Diana had probably once done her homework.

 _Dear Baldwin_ , she began.

At Les Revenants, Matthew had dragged the entire family out for a walk despite the rain. Jack and the twins seemed to be largely recovered from the events of the recent days but Diana was still pensive. Letting their children take a sizeable lead, Matthew pulled his wife closer, dropping a kiss on her temple as the walked. “What is troubling you, _mon Coeur_?” he asked.

“I was thinking about yesterday.” She admitted. Matthew nodded. He’d expected this. “I didn’t like it.”

“It?”

“You punished me, Matthew.” She whispered, her cheeks bright.

“I did.” He agreed. “Did you not imagine that punishment might be a necessary element for you to feel _chafed_?” The word was taking on many different meanings in their private language.

“No, I expected that.” Diana admitted. “I would even have welcomed a bit of pain, I think.” Matthew knew exactly where she was going but he gave her the space to get there in her own way.

“But I hated knowing you were in pain.” She whispered. “I can’t bear it, Matthew. Promise me you will never do that again. “

“So, your objection to the means of punishment is that it was unpleasant in a way you would not have chosen?” Matthew asked.

“You shouldn’t have to suffer because of me.” She insisted. Matthew chuckled at that.

“ _Mon Coeur_ , you are the best reason I have ever had to suffer.” She shot him a dirty look.

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it!”

“Yes, I do.” He stopped them and turned to face her, wanting to be sure that she understood exactly what he needed to say. “Just because your magic has been freed does not mean that the habits and behaviours you developed when you were spellbound have suddenly gone. Behaviour is adaptive and your habits served a purpose. Since Chelm, I have watched you fall back into old habits. No matter how many commitments and obligations you make, you seem constitutionally unable to say no when new ones appear. And not only do you take on more than a single warm-blood could ever do, you feel compelled to deliver on every promise.” His lips quirked. “My love, you are trying to be a vampire.” Diana frowned.

He had a point. It had become a point of honour to wait for Matthew to stop working before she did. It felt like laziness to sleep for hours while he spent so much time on work, scion business, and parenting their children.

“We were talking about you.” Diana muttered.

“Alright. How much physical pain do you think I would have had to inflict on you yesterday to break through the mountain of worry you’d piled on yourself?”

“I would have preferred it to what you did.” She grumbled.

“As I preferred to be the one to feel the physical pain that was necessary.” Matthew told her softly. “And this conversation tells me it was the right choice. The pain I experienced is already just one more memory amongst many others. But you are still processing the experience. That is what punishment should do. The physical pain is just a way of getting your attention so that you can learn the lesson. The lesson I intended for you to learn yesterday is that there are consequences to pushing yourself beyond the point of reason and control. You may not be the one to suffer the physical consequences but you would inevitably torture yourself with regret.”

“Promise me you will not do that again.” Diana repeated.

“I will not. Punishment should be a deterrent. If you do not want to repeat the punishment, you will find a way to either manage your stress or ask for help before you become a danger to others. Those are your choices, Diana. But you can be assured that the first person you will hurt if you become overwhelmed, is me. I will always be the first one in your path.” Stepping closer, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest, waiting for the slow beat of his heart.

“And if I came to you, and asked you to help me, before you decide it is necessary… you will not suffer?” Diana asked quietly. She needed to understand what the terms were.

“If you come to me by choice, I may still punish you but I would not suffer.” Matthew kissed the top of her head. “I might even enjoy it.” Diana laughed softly.

“Are you guys still here?” Jack asked as he and the twins came up from behind. They’d completed a full lap while their parents had stood talking in the rain.


	27. Immortality is like zucchinis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marthe shares her story & Matthew institutes a new routine for the family.

Eloise drifted through Sarah’s stillroom, taking down each jar and sniffing the contents.

Like Sarah, she was an earth witch. Her connection to nature had always been a deep root, anchoring her. Even as a child, she had been fascinated by watching things grow. There was a magic in the transformation from a seed to a plant to a pie or potion. She’d dedicated her mortal life to the care and nurturing of plants, then pets, and eventually children.

No one had said it yet, but she knew that her days at the nursery were over. It wasn’t just her fear of what she might do if she got hungry or the very understandable reluctance parents might have leaving their children in her care.

None of the plans she’d made mattered now.

As a warm-blood, her life had been finite. She had planned to work for another few years and then retire, comfortably but modestly. She would live out her life, having her former charges stop by with their new babies, while she baked cookies for the coven bake sale or tended the current residents of her foster pet motel. She’d never had children of her own but she had counted on her sister to care for her if she, like their mother, developed dementia.

Forever seemed much easier to accept when you didn’t need to keep yourself busy for all of it.

_Ingrate._

It wasn’t that she didn’t see the amazing gifts that this new life conferred. It’s just that she didn’t know what to do with it. “Immortality is like zucchinis.” She whispered to herself.

“How?” Marthe asked, coming in from the kitchen. Eloise smiled.

“Sorry, I’m still not used to vampire hearing. I was talking to myself. It’s a bit of a habit.”

“Still, I am curious about how immortality is like a courgette!”

“Every year, I plant a vegetable garden. And most of the summer I look after the plants and tend them, looking forward to the day when I can have the first bit of fresh produce from my labour. But you never get just one zucchini, or tomato, at a time. It’s always a glut. And all the neighbours have too many to eat too. And because I’m a single woman, they just all assume I must need someone to provide me with vegetables. So I end up with my own, and other people’s, and I don’t know what do with it all.” Marthe nodded in agreement. “Mortal life is very much like that. The seeds planted in childhood allow us to labour through our working life with the expectation of a good harvest at the end to see us through old age. Eventually we die and a new crop comes in. But as a vampire, I suddenly feel like I have more years ahead of me than I imagined dreams for. I am struggling to wrap my brain around what that means and how I will find purpose forever.”

“This is a worthy question to ask yourself.” Marthe praised. “It is no small thing to let go of who you are and have been for your whole life, and become a vampire. Even without the matter of immortality, the change that your union with Baldwin would have demanded was immense.” Eloise wondered about the origin story of this vampire who had chosen to remain in service for millennia but knew better than to ask. Marthe smiled and went to the fridge for a bag of blood which she poured into two cups before inviting Eloise to sit at the table.

“I am, near enough, to three thousand years old. My sire died during the vampire wars and I was enslaved. It is at that time that I met Ysabeau. When Phillippe rescued her, he offered me a position in his household. I have never regretted it.”

“Do you not ever yearn for change?” Marthe shook her head.

“Change comes whether we seek it or not. Warm-bloods show age with wrinkles and greying hair. Vampires see the passage of time through the erosion of mountains or the shifting of river beds. We become content in the _for now_ even if it may last centuries. Some have a fire within that they strive to quell. Others are more like ancient stones, providing the foundation others can build on. Immortality gives you the time to be either, or both, as you need to be. You will find your purpose, Eloise. For now, it is enough to understand that you need one.”

“Thank you, Marthe.”

“Quitting time, Dr. Bishop.” Matthew announced as he closed his own laptop. After the events of recent days, he’d announced some new rules for the household. The first was that screen time would be limited for the warm-bloods in the house. Given that the toddlers didn’t have any digital devices, that pretty much meant that the rule applied only to Diana.

“We’re ready, dad.” Jack announced, appearing with the twins in his arms.

“Ready for what?”

“Boot camp, I think.” Jack answered. “At least that’s what it sounded like.”

“Close enough.” Matthew agreed.

“With two-year-olds?” Diana looked dubious.

“They need to start learning to use their magic with intention and who better to teach them than you? You’re not just their mother, you are the world’s most powerful witch.”

“I don’t have any magic so I guess that lets me off the hook.” Jack said cheerfully.

“No, it doesn’t.” Matthew corrected. “Just because you don’t have magic doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t get the same benefit that comes from confidence in your own abilities. As much as I would like it to be otherwise, being in this family means you are a target. And I could use a sparring partner who won’t incinerate me by accident.” Diana stuck her tongue out at him for that teasing swipe. “Come on.”

Once they were past the moat, Jack put his siblings down. Their familiars immediately leapt out to enjoy the fresh air and space.

“Diana, can you start assessing what powers the children have? Maybe set them some small challenges to see what they can do? Jack, your job is to knock me on my rear.” Matthew announced.

“I think I’ll start them on flying.” Diana said. “And Jack, enjoy this. Knocking Matthew on his rear is a rare treat.” Diana swiped a current of air at Matthew’s feet with enough force to send him flying. A cushion of air spared him any bruises but left him sitting in a pile of wet leaves. Matthew laughed and got back to his feet.

“Come at me, Jack.” Diana moved a short distance away and crouched down to the twins’ height. She held out her hand to them and flicked the finger with the red mark down its length against her thumb. A little ball of fire appeared in front of them.

Rebecca was fascinated by the fire but Philip reached for Diana’s hand, running the tip of his finger along the mark down to her thumb. When he lifted his hand way, a dot of red was visible at the tip of his finger as if Diana’s mark was nothing more than a streak of wet ink that had transferred onto his finger. He flicked the finger against his thumb as he’d just watched Diana do and a tiny ball of fire, no bigger than a marble, appeared beside Diana’s. Not to be outdone, Rebecca reached for Diana’s hand and traced the blue line. A tiny blue dot marked her finger tip. Turning her hand down, she wiggled her fingers and a light rain fell on the fire balls. Not enough to extinguish them, but enough to create a bit of steam.

It was also enough to distract Matthew so that Jack flipped him onto his rear. “Dad! I’m sorry!” Jack gasped, reaching down to help Matthew to his feet.

“Don’t be. I shouldn’t have let my attention wander. Let’s go again.”

After that, Diana and Matthew focused on teaching their children to use their special gifts. Diana was careful to make a game of it but Matthew made the session deliberately challenging for Jack – pushing him hard towards his physical and mental limits.

They spent nearly an hour outside. By then, Jack was shaking with fatigue and the twins were getting fractious. “Supper time.” Diana announced, herding her family back towards the bridge. Catching Matthew’s hand, she ignored the smear of blood that was the only evidence of a broken bone that Jack had inflicted with a lucky kick. Kissing his knuckles, she held him back for a moment. “You reminded me so much of Phillippe, just there. That day in the hay barn.” The day when Phillippe had made her his blood sworn daughter after provoking Matthew into a blood rage. “And yesterday. I know your father is proud of you.” Matthew turned his hand and caught her fingers, bringing them to his lips as they followed their children into the house.

_My Dear Eloise,_

_My favourite colour is blue. Specifically, the blue of the Tyrrhenian Sea. There was no word for_ blue _when I was young. Homer likened it to dark wine. I like that such a beautiful sight was there for entire ages of living history but we had no word to describe it._

_Someday, I will take you to the place where I was born._

_Tell me where you would like me to take you first._

_Yours faithfully,_

_Baldwin_

Eloise folded the letter and placed it in the wooden box before making her way down the stairs. She had noticed an atlas on Sarah’s bookshelf.


	28. Of Vampires and Witches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eloise has a question and Gallowglass's gets his orders.

Eloise had drifted back into the stillroom. Ysabeau had gone out to hunt, Miriam was in a video call with someone who was either a colleague, a mortal enemy, or her lover. It was hard to tell. Marthe was sitting on the porch with one of the second-hand books that Fernando had delivered along with the latest blood delivery.

Like Sarah, Eloise had always been particularly good at witchcraft. After speaking with Janet and Diana at the Congregation, she’d understood that her element was probably earth. She’d given a blood sample, of course, and in a few weeks, she would receive a report about what her DNA showed of her magic potential. Except that it would be meaningless now. Most of that DNA had been obliterated by Baldwin’s blood.

Still, she retained the knowledge of plants and herbs that she’d gained over the years.

It was what had brought her down to Sarah’s magical laboratory. She wanted to know if any of her magic remained. She took a few jars off the shelf. Meadowsweet, Purple Sage, Calendula, and Motherwort were among the plants that every witch included in her garden. Tipping a small amount out onto a sheet of paper, Eloise asked herself a simple question. _What can I see?_

“Diana.” Matthew’s voice was all strained patience. He was stretched out on the bed wearing nothing but pyjama bottoms while Diana prepared for bed. From where he was, he could see the crackle of electricity as she brushed her hair. A human would have attributed it to static but he knew better.

One of the first lessons he’d learnt as a husband was that leaving his wife to ruminate in bed wasn’t good for anyone. And really, it was one of the few moments when he could keep his magical motion machine still. “You’re supposed to be winding down for sleep, not thinking yourself into a –“

“Sorry, Matthew. It’s just that I remembered you said you heard the blood screaming in Rebecca’s memory.” Diana interrupted.

“I did. And that is definitely not a topic that will help either of us settle down.”

“Just listen!” Diana ordered impatiently. Matthew capitulated. Clearly it was too late to dampen this storm. His only hope was to get it over with as quickly as possible. “You didn’t hear the blood but neither did I. So, the twins heard something neither of us can detect.”

“So, this could be a new power, a combination of witch and vampire powers.” He said thoughtfully. It made sense, from a genetic perspective. In fact, he’d been expecting it. When a vampire reproduced through resurrection, the vampire blood overwhelmed the warm-blood DNA. The person retained some of their original DNA but became mostly vampire. Sexual reproduction was much less violent, at the DNA level. Unlike full vampires, Rebecca and Phillip had inherited half of his genetic material and half from their mother. With neither dominant, their powers could express combinations that had never before been seen.

“If it is, we need to protect them.” Diana’s concern cut through his contemplation of what promised to be a very compelling genetic question. 

“They are already protected, Diana.” Matthew reassured her. 

“But this is a new threat.”

“No, it is not.” Not for the first time, Matthew could hear Phillippe’s oft-repeated admonishment, why _is it always the dark with you, never the light?_ It seemed that Diana was picking up some of his pessimism as he dropped it.

Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, he went over to Diana and pulled her into a hug.

“Diana, we cannot increase the layers of protection over our children every time we discover something about them that others might want to use if they just knew about it. They have a fierce witch for a mother, a reasonably capable vampire for a father, the de Claremonts, and the Knights of Lazarus to protect them. We’re the only ones who know that they have new powers. That does not increase the danger.”

“But Matthew, the Congregation will test them when they come of age!”

“That’s not for another sixteen years, Diana. That’s sixteen years to train and prepare them. And besides, the Congregation will test them for the ordinary range of powers. They can’t create tests for something they don’t even know exists. And even if they did know it was a possibility, they’d need to get their hands on pre-turn samples from strongly mated pairs.” Diana nodded. “Come to bed, _mon Coeur_. Let me give you something much more fun to worry about.” 

For the first time in his centuries of existence, Gallowglass was delighted to have a message from the head of the family interrupt him. “Leave it!” The blond who was currently sheathing him ordered when he reached for the phone. Gallowglass ignored her and grabbed his phone.

**Call me.**

“I have to go.” He told his bed mate. He finished her off quickly. It wasn’t her fault that she looked like the siren tattooed on his chest. It _was_ her fault that she’d marvelled at the coincidence and mentioned she was happy to be his type. As if she could hold a candle to Diana. Gallowglass wanted to be away from the woman as quickly as possible. Leaping out of bed, he pulled his clothes back on and headed out the door without saying anything more.

He rode out to a little patch of beach where he knew that he would have privacy and enough fresh air to blow away the blond’s scent while he called Baldwin.

“I have a job for you.” The head of the de Claremonts announced by way of greeting. “You’ll need to be in Oxford in five weeks.” Gallowglass felt his gut clench. Diana and Matthew generally lived in Oxford during the academic year. In six weeks, courses would start again.

“Plan to be there for a while.” Baldwin told him. “It’s a protection detail. You can either swing by Les Revenant so Matthew can brief you, or Miriam can do it when you get to Oxford.”

“I’ll see Miriam in Oxford.” Gallowglass said quickly. Baldwin might not know about his feelings for his aunt but Diana did and Matthew too, he suspected. He just couldn’t bear to face them, especially after what he’d just done.

“Fine. Keep comms to a minimum on this, Gallowglass.”

“Got it.”


	29. Problems of Contraction and Convergence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How many vampires can Oxford accomodate?

Baldwin read Eloise’s letter again. He savoured every word, knowing that it required a lot of effort for her to write anything. He wouldn’t be surprised to learn that even the short paragraph had taken over an hour for her to get down.

She’d confessed about the skunk fiasco, explaining that if she could still smell it, it was probably all over the letter too. She promised that once she was sure the smell was gone, she would make him more pecans. She was starting to tell him more about her training too. Reaching for a fresh sheet of parchment, he began his reply.

_My dearest,_

_Your independent exploration of how your remaining witch’s power and new vampire powers have combined pleases me immensely. That is something that you will need to figure out on your own, I’m afraid. I know of no other witch-vampire mates to help you._

It wasn’t, strictly speaking, a lie. The twins were clearly equal parts vampire and witch but they weren’t mated yet, and they were certainly not able to teach anyone anything yet.

_You are correct that the scent of your misadventures lingered on the pages of your last letter. Thank you for telling me. I might otherwise have asked Miriam to implement laboratory-grade contamination protocols to shield the letters from her touch._

_I, like Marthe, enjoyed your description of immortal life as a glut of produce. What I will say is that there is time. You needn’t plan for eternity today, or even this century. Begin with one dream or two. There will be new ones on the other side._

_With love,_

_B._

Like many young children, Rebecca and Jack were easily excited by the small routines of normal life. It had become a a ritual for Jack to take them out to greet the postman and then carry any mail back to their parents. 

Jack had been trying to use this activity as an opportunity to learn their letters, at least enough to be able to distribute any mail to Diana or Matthew as appropriate. Their parents duly thanked them for each item they delivered. 

With no mail on Bastille Day, they were extra excited to discharge their important duty the next morning when the postman delivered the mail. Jack leaned in the doorway and watched as they made their way back and forth between Diana and Matthew’s desks. Thanks and praise were heaped on the toddlers for each bit of mail correctly delivered.

“Oh, this one isn’t for me, Philip.” Matthew said, looking at the name on one letter. “See, that says Jack.” Phillip wrinkled his forehead in confusion. Jack rarely received any paper correspondence. Accepting that his father probably wasn’t lying, he walked over to give Jack the envelope. It was on Oxford University letterhead.

Matthew and Diana immediately turned their attention to their elder son who seemed reluctant to do anything but stare at his name. “Jack?” Matthew was at his son’s side in a moment. Jack’s ability to deal with familiar emotions and situations had greatly improved since he’d returned to them. He still struggled with novelty. Letters from universities addressed to him certainly qualified. Diana hesitated, recognizing the blood rage flare in her son’s eyes. “Eyes on me, Jack.” Matthew commanded. 

The habit of obedience was well established and Jack looked at his father. In the matter of three breaths, the blood rage receded. “You open it.” He said, shoving the letter at Matthew.

“No. This is your future, your decision. It’ll be fine, Jack.” Picking up a letter opener on a nearby table, Jack ran it along the seam while Diana moved to casually reposition the twins behind her and Matthew.

“Dear Mr. Jack Bishop-Clairemont, you are invited to attend an admission interview at Balliol College on August 13th, at 11:00 o’clock. This interview is part of the admission process and will address your suitability as a candidate for the combined Fine Arts and Psychology Program. The interview will last an hour. Please present yourself with identification and this letter to the Main Gate where you will be directed to the appropriate room. If you cannot attend on this date, or if you require special accommodation, this can be arranged by emailing the address below.” Jack stared down at the paper with dawning horror. “That’s your birthday, mom. I’ll reschedule!” 

“You’ll do no such thing!” Diana told him firmly.

“But I won’t be able to be here to celebrate and there. Dad’ll need help with your birthday party.”

“We will all be in Oxford.” Diana announced. “We needed to be back anyways for the start of classes. Your dad may not have any undergraduate teaching obligations but I do. My new History of Creatures course is full and starts first period on the first day of semester. We’ll just go a bit earlier. And we can celebrate my birthday, and your new chapter, at the Old Lodge or even in Oxford. Ysabeau and Miriam will still be in Madison with Eloise so it’ll be a smaller event than last year. Probably just us, Marcus, Phoebe, Sarah, Fernando, Chris, and maybe Baldwin.”

“Jack, I want you to start working with your mother every day to prepare for the interview. If you spend an hour each morning, you can spend the day working on your answers and I can test you after everyone else goes to bed. You won’t be worried if you are prepared and I’ll be tougher than any undergraduate admission committee could be.” Diana bit back a smile as Jack shot his father a relieved look. He knew he could count on Matthew to help him overprepare. The fact that Diana was closely affiliated with the college didn’t matter nearly as much as Matthew’s expectations.

“Hey, you didn’t have to be here.” Gallowglass said when he arrived at Marcus’s house in Canterbury Street, three days after Baldwin had ordered him to Oxford.

“What, and miss the chance for a night out with my favourite cousin?” Marcus scoffed. “Besides, it’ll be just like old times, carousing in Oxford ‘til all hours.”

“I thought you were past that with all your new responsibilities.” Gallowglass chided. “Speaking of which, where’s Phoebe?”

“She’s out with friends in London but she’ll head up tomorrow morning. Works out well, I have some Knights business to discuss with you before we go out.”

“Haven’t you inducted her yet?”

“No. I don’t want her to join the order until she’s gotten some proper training in self-defence.”

“She’s scrappy. In a fight she’d probably do better than Hamish and he’s been a knight for years. Besides, you could train her.”

“I could. But I have to say that Baldwin’s example is hard to ignore. Training your mate has its own challenges.”

“Baldwin’s example? Did I miss something?”

“Baldwin has found his mate. Which is actually the reason you’re here.”

“He doesn’t think he can manage the matter on his own?” Gallowglass asked. “I know I have a reputation with the ladies but…”

“Go ahead, get your jokes out of your system before Baldwin hears you.” Marcus encouraged drily as he poured them each a glass of wine.

It took almost two hours for Marcus to tell Gallowglass about everything that happened in recent weeks. “Jeanette has already accepted Matthew’s offer of a job but with Miriam spending more time in the Yale lab, we need some experienced muscle in the Oxford lab with Xbox.”

“I remember her. She was working for Chris before…” Gallowglass paused. Before Diana had known anything about his feelings for her. Back when he could still pretend that calling her Auntie made him love her less. “Before Chelm.” That was enough.

“Yeah. She remembers you too. Matthew asked her first if she was okay with being in a lab with you all day.” No one had bothered to ask Gallowglass how he felt, of course. De Claremonts did as they were told. “It might not be for too long. Matthew texted me this morning to say they’ll be back in Oxford on the tenth of August. Jack is trying to get into an art therapy program and his interview is on the thirteenth. I guess if Matthew’s in the lab most days, that’ll be adequate vampire protection.”

“It’ll be nice to see Jackie again.” Gallowglass was fond of the boy. Along with Matthew, Diana, and Father Hubbard, he was one of the few people who remembered Jack as a human kid. When Matthew and Diana had been making love, it had fallen to Gallowglass to soothe Jack after nightmares.

“And you’ll get to spend time with the twins. There’ll be a party for Diana’s birthday on the thirteenth. I don’t know if they’ll have it at the Old Lodge or their new place on Church Road.” The Old Lodge was beautiful, of course, but entirely impractical for a family with toddlers. Instead, they had bought a house on the river, just across from the Oxford Science Park. It was an easy commute into work for both of them and with plenty of room for their family and visitors. Marcus didn’t mention that Matthew and Diana had disagreed with some intensity about her plan to avoid traffic by rowing to work and back each day, year-round. Matthew had won, for now.

“We’ll see.” Gallowglass said. “I still don’t understand though. When we got the Book of Life back in Bohemia, I thought that Uncle said everything about life was in the DAN.”

“DNA.” Marcus corrected. “Well, it will be. But we don’t know how yet. For one thing, the fact that blood can _behave_ is a completely new discovery. We don’t know much at all about all of this and the only strong sample we had to work with has been destroyed, unfortunately.”

“Strong sample?” Gallowglass asked. Marcus nodded.

“Chris took a few other samples to show Matthew. Familial ones from Baldwin and his mate.” Gallowglass may not have been to university, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Mine?”

“Yes.” Marcus was glad Baldwin and Matthew had agreed to let him tell Gallowglass about this.

“Your blood showed signs of being active too. We don’t know what that means yet, but it seems possible that you may have a mate out there, cousin.” Marcus waited for Gallowglass to absorb the news. For whatever reason, the big Gael had never made any lasting connection.

“So, I’m not just here as protection, I’m here as a blood sample.”

“Only if you want to be.” Marcus said. “It’s up to you. On the one hand, it might help to identify a potential mate if that person’s blood happens to come through the Oxford lab. On the other, where ever there is information, there’s a risk of theft. It wouldn’t be the first time the Oxford lab was broken into. You need to decide if you are willing to take that risk.”

“To find a mate?” It seemed impossible to imagine that anyone could ever supplant Diana in his affections. But it seemed equally impossible for him to go on like he had been, for eternity. “I’d take any risk.”


	30. Fresher Blood Week

“It’s time to move her to New York where she can practice hunting in an urban setting.” Miriam told Baldwin. It had been a month since he’d turned Eloise and though she’d had the opportunity to practice feeding on humans, she needed to learn to do so in urban settings. “She’s thirty, Baldwin. Phoebe was out hunting with Jason by this age.”

“Yes, and you remember what a disaster that was!” Phoebe had become light struck on her first outing and had attacked a tourist.

“She was only twenty-one. And Eloise has had more practice with hunting in the open already. Ysabeau and I have taken her out every night for two weeks. She’s made huge strides.” Thankfully, there had been no repeat of the skunk debacle. 

“I don’t like it.” Baldwin muttered. “Maybe I should go with you.”

“Oh, that’s a brilliant plan.” Miriam muttered. “You two have been separated for weeks and she’s just learning to hunt properly and you want to throw the biggest distraction imaginable in her path.” Baldwin glared but knew Miriam was right. 

Eloise’s letters showed him how fast she was progressing. At first, she’d struggled with a few short sentences but now, each letter was several pages long. Every day, they each sent a letter, that was exchanged through Miriam. The conversation flowed easily and was increasingly intimate. They’d even started playing a game that consisted of scenting the paper with plant oils. Each day, they’d send each other a mysterious combination, challenging each other to identify the mix or sharing memories and knowledge.

His conversations with Eloise had taken a remarkable turn when she’d asked him if he had any secret pleasures, ones he’d never shared with anyone else. He’d admitted that he had a long-standing addiction to M*A*S*H. Did she? Her answer had been a url to a fanfiction site and a writer name. He’d found a vast collection of stories that featured Hawkeye as a vampire having rather torrid encounters with every female in Korea. The two latest ones, posted the night after he left Madison but before she developed mating sickness had left him standing in a cold shower for a very, very long time. Since then, they had started a new game. Each of them wrote a page of a vampire romance of their own. Baldwin was loving every word.

“Two more weeks, Miriam. I want to introduce Eloise to the rest of the family at Diana’s birthday celebration. And that way, we can all fly together. You know what the first transatlantic flight is like for new vampires. I want her to have as much support as possible.”

“Then you’ll need to book Jeanette on a commercial flight.” Miriam said. “You can’t have one human on a flight with five vampires. Especially when one of those vampires is just a fledgling.”

“Sarah will be there too. And I’ve invited Eloise’s family too.”

“Nephew!” Matthew greeted, clasping Gallowglass in a tight hug.

“Uncle!” All other considerations aside, Gallowglass was happy to see his favourite uncle. He lifted him off his feet and then quickly put him down again to squat down and introduce himself to the two tiny creatures staring up at him in awe. Matthew gently reached down and eased thumbs out of mouths. “Philip, this is your godfather and cousin, Gallowglass. Gallowglass, your godson, Philip and his sister, Rebecca.”

“Grass.” Rebecca said, in her best approximation of his name.

“Close enough.” Gallantly kissing Rebecca’s tiny hand before turning his attention to Philip. “Hey wee man.” Matthew stepped back, giving the three a chance to get acquainted. He rubbed his sternum to ease the tightness. Gallowglass had always had a way with kids. Back in Elizabethan England, he’d been the one to intervene when Matthew’s emotions scared Jack. Whatever his feelings for Diana or Matthew, he’d never let them upset the lad. Watching him now with his Bright Born children was a happy moment that was only possible because Gallowglass had been such a steadfast protector of their small family.

Within a minute, Gallowglass had tempted the children to climb on top of him. Standing up, he expertly kept them safe even as he pretended to drop them or spun them about like cheerleader batons. Finally, Matthew plucked Rebecca into his arms. “Do you want me to show you the lab so you’ll get a feel for the place before Jeanette arrives?”

“Sure.” Matthew led the way from the park through to his lab, explaining the security that was already in place as they went. They put Philip and Rebecca down when they entered Matthew’s office.

“Marcus said you’d want more of my blood. Do you want to take it as long as I’m here?” Gallowglass asked. 

“Sure. I’ll take a bit more than a usual sample, if that’s okay. We know your blood has some reactivity so it would be good to have a bit more of a supply.” Matthew looked through the glass partition into the lab. “You two stay in here.” He told the children, who were very interested in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet where they knew Matthew kept toys for when they visited him at work. “Keep an eye on them while I get a phlebotomy kit ready, will you?” Matthew asked.

“You’re a natural, uncle. You were with Jackie too but he was already much older when you met him. It’s great to see you with the sprogs.” Matthew groaned.

“Not you too!” Matthew muttered. “I’m hoping that Miriam outgrows that undignified term.” Matthew said as he slid the needle into Gallowglass’s vein.

“Uhm… Matthew, I don’t think your distraction worked.” Looking over to the glass wall, Matthew discovered his levitating children staring intently at what he was doing. He quickly finished and placed the vials, unlabelled, into the fridge. Opening the door between the two rooms, he caught his children as they headed for the fridge. “Sing-ey juice.” Rebecca said, offering her bloody thumb to Matthew. Both children seemed far calmer than they had the previous time they’d heard blood scream. Now it was more like curiosity than rage.

“Grass!” Philip said, holding his arms out to his godfather. Delighted with this evidence of budding attachment, Gallowglass collected his godson, only to have Philip swipe a finger quickly over the drop of blood on his arm and taste it.

“Conniving little blighter! He just wanted my blood.” Gallowglass exclaimed, with a laugh. Philip stared, expecting a second drop to appear but Gallowglass’s vampire skin had already sealed the tiny wound.

“Miriam will have my head for leaving unlabelled samples in the fridge but I’m not taking them out while these two are around. You might have to give another sample later, Gallowglass. Sorry about that.” Gallowglass shrugged.

“Are they like that with all blood?”

“Not especially. I mean, they are growing vampires so they like blood, like we all do. But there are some bloods they seem to have a particular interest in.” Matthew led them out of the lab, taking care to lock everything up on the way.

“Have you figured out what makes certain blood special?”

“Not yet.” Matthew muttered. He trusted Gallowglass implicitly but he and Diana had decided they wouldn’t disclose the children’s newly discovered power to anyone for now. What was clear was that he wouldn’t be able to bring the children to the lab anymore, especially when the fridges and freezers started filling up with noisy blood.

Over supper, Matthew told Diana about his day. Jack had gone out with Gallowglass and Marcus and the twins were in bed.

“Sing-ey juice? Are you sure that’s what she said?”

“She’s two, Diana. I’m never sure of anything she says. But it sounded like singey juice to me. Why does it matter?”

“I wonder if they can hear vampire blood in the same way that vampires can hear witches’ blood. Maybe vampire blood sings too, just not at a frequency you can hear.”

“Vampires have better hearing than warmbloods, with a broader range.” Matthew told her, sounding slightly defensive.

“Could they be describing it as sound even if it’s something else? They might not have the words to describe a nuance of smell or colour, for example.”

“Or they could have a touch of synaesthesia.” Matthew agreed. “It wouldn’t be that surprising given all the differences between how their brains are wired and every other brain ever studied. It’s a possibility.” 

“Do you think Gallowglass will come to the party?” She asked, changing the subject. 

“Perhaps. It’s difficult for him, Diana. He has harboured his feelings for centuries.” Diana scratched at the blank patch on her wrist and Matthew raised an eyebrow.

“That has become something of a tell, wife.” He told her. “You only scratch that spot when you ask a question that you’ve asked the goddess to hide from you.”

“I may have been a bit imprecise in my request.” Diana admitted. “It seems that I can no longer see the destiny of _anyone_ I care about. I’ve been trying since we learned about the blood, and Gallowglass’s blood in particular. The Book of Life won’t tell me.”

“Good.” Matthew said grimly.

“But, if I could find him a life mate –“

“Diana, I’ve told you before. I don’t want you meddling of matters of life or death. That certainly includes taking on the responsibility for arranging fate.” Near the kitchen hearth, Phillippe’s ghost nodded his approval. Diana threw him a dirty look.

“Matthios is right, daughter. It is enough to be the Book of Life, it does not fall to you to be the Hand of Fate too.”

“I don’t remember you being quite so agreeable to Matthew’s opinions when you were alive, Phillippe.” She grumbled. 

“He has grown wiser. And he is a good husband and sieur, to you. Ask him to take you to bed, daughter.” Diana’s cheeks blazed at the instruction and Matthew roared with laughter. He couldn’t see or hear his father’s spirit, but he could read his wife’s face and he’d known Phillippe for near enough to fifteen centuries. Satisfied, Phillippe’s ghost dissipated.

“Your father’s proud of you.” She told Matthew.

“What did he said that made you blush?”

“I forget.”

“Liar.” Diana stood to clear the table but first dropped a kiss on her husband’s smiling lips.

“He said I should ask you to take me to bed.” She whispered. “Quite an outrageous instruction for a father to give his daughter.”

“No more inappropriate than when he ordered his son to take you to bed on our wedding night and consummate our union with all possible haste.”

“He didn’t say that!” Diana gasped. 

“You’d had three glasses of wine, wife. Your memory has suffered as a result.” Laughing, Diana turned and ran for their bedroom, laughing at the sound of a warning growl behind her.


	31. Boundaries & Desires

“I want Baldwin!” Eloise roared as Ysabeau dragged her into the converted warehouse loft they were using as a base. Baldwin’s penthouse had been deemed too bright for the purposes.

Marthe appeared and easily took charge of the young vampire.

“What happened this time?” She asked.

“Our willing prey had a pimp.” Miriam said grimly. “Operative word, had.” Marthe deposited Eloise on the sofa and handed her a bowl of sugared pansies, immediately distracting their drug-addled charge.

“Eloise was just about to pounce, as arranged. The pimp showed up and made his feelings on the arrangement violently clear. Eloise took offense and redirected her bite on him. Miriam is cleaning up the mess. Unfortunately, he was rather high on a mix of dubious drugs.”

“Baldwin!” Eloise shouted in a sing-song voice. “Oh Baldwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwin!” Ysabeau pinched the bridge of her nose. Fernando was right. The first effect of witch-vampire matings was a great many headaches for vampires.

“Stop this!” Marthe snapped. “Baldwin is not here.”

“I want to call him. He didn’t send a letter today.”

“You are not calling him in this state!” Ysabeau told her. It was bad enough Baldwin knew about the skunk incident. He would rightfully be incensed if he learned of this latest disaster. No one wanted to hear the lecture that would result.

In many ways, Eloise was an exceptional turn. She was intelligent, curious, principled and willing to learn. But she also had a knack for taking a perfectly ordinary lesson and turning it into what Baldwin referred to as a shit-show. Ysabeau had thought, after what Matthew and Louisa had put her through, that she could handle anything. Eloise was certainly testing that belief.

“Gallowglass and Marcus are going out tonight.” Jack announced.

“Good for them. You aren’t.” Diana interrupted, levelling her best professorial tone at her eldest son. Matthew’s lips twitched. It wasn’t often that Diana laid down the law but Jack had it coming.

“But mom –“ He started. It was telling that he didn’t immediately fall back on being a centuries-old vampire who was well beyond the age of asking his mother for permission to go out.

“I said no, Jack. The interview is two days away and I will not have you out carousing in Oxford until all hours. You need to be calm and well-rested for the admissions interview.”

“I will be.” Jack promised, looking to Matthew for support. Diana didn’t waver.

“That’s right. Because you are staying home tonight and tomorrow. And you might as well get used to it. There’ll be a strict curfew during term.”

“But I don’t need to sleep!” Jack protested.

“Great, so you can spend those extra hours working on your assignments. The essay you wrote for me yesterday about the differences in the reflective properties of natural pigments pre- and post-industrialization was not your best work.” 

“Dad!” Jack appealed to Matthew who just chuckled.

“I’m wounded, Jack. Whatever made you think I’m so stupid that I would cross your mother when she’s decided on something for your own good?” With a very adolescent sounding snarl, Jack snatched his maligned essay off of Diana’s desk and stalked to his room. 

“Feel better?” Matthew asked, pulling her into his arms.

“I don’t get it, Matthew! He wants to succeed but he’s raised procrastination to an art form. That essay was a disgrace.”

“I know, _mon Coeur_. But procrastination is an emotion-management issue, not a time-management issue. He puts off anything that might lead to disappointing us. After all, you can’t fail if you don’t try.”

“But he just needs to apply himself! He’s brilliant.”

“I know. He just has a few doubts that he needs his mother to sort out for him.”

“I don’t like being the bad cop.” Diana muttered.

“But you did it, for Jack. And now he knows that if he doesn’t do his best, he’ll answer to you. That’s exactly what he needed.” Diana nodded.

“Chafing.” Just like faith, boundaries needed to be tested. Jack had needed her to prove that she would protect him as fiercely as she protected the twins or Matthew. 

“Exactly. He’s struggling, a bit, I think with being a part of a family. It’s good for him, and he loves us, but it’s to be expected that he would sometimes need firm reassurance.”

“Oh, I can provide that.” Diana said grimly, her eyes flickering towards the stairs. She could hear Jack playing the Duchess of Marlborough up in the attic. With Matthew’s help, he’d converted the space into a combination suite and studio where he could retreat when he needed to. Diana and Matthew could now calibrate his mood depending on what pieces he practiced on the cello. Matthew remembered overhearing Fernando speaking with Jack when he’d first arrived in New Orleans. He’d threatened Jack that he’d tell Diana if he ever caught Jack wallowing in self-hatred. Jack had told Diana himself in a way and Fernando was right, Diana wasn’t having it. Their children would be fine.

“I’m gonna miss you, Xbox.” Chris Roberts said quietly as he signed the last of the paperwork ending her time in his lab. 

“I’ll miss you too. Had some good times in this lab. I think it might be a little bit lonely in the Oxford lab.”

“Yeah, especially after Miriam comes back to Yale.” He agreed. That was a day he couldn’t wait for. At least he’d see a bit of her on the flights to and from England when they all headed over for Diana’s birthday.

“Well, at least I’ll have Gallowglass to keep me company. I bet he’ll be fun to go for drinks with after work.” 

“He is. But, remember. His mission is to be your bodyguard and from what I’ve seen of vampires, they can get a little intense when it comes to protection details.”

“I’m sure he’ll be cool.” 

Baldwin looked at his watch. 7:58 p.m.

Forcing himself to walk slowly to the vault, he carefully entered the combination and took a deep breath. Eloise and pecans; what more could he want?

When Fernando had called to announce that Eloise had mating pangs, Baldwin had deliberately left the treat in the vault. He’d known that there was a chance that Eloise would never get another chance to make him a batch and he had tortured himself with thoughts of how long he’d be able to keep them before the scent faded even for him.

But now he knew that in a little less than twenty-four hours, he’d be able to breathe in her scent again. God! He hoped that the skunk stink was finally gone.

7:59.

How would he ever manage to keep himself under control when he saw her again? It had been nearly five endless weeks since he’d held her or tasted her blood. Now they’d have to sit in plane with both of their families for the seven-hour flight to London when they’d just been reunited. It was nothing short of a crime against vampires. He’d even considered arranging a second flight for just the two of them but the thought of how much teasing he’d get about that in the centuries to come had discouraged him.

8:00. Baldwin took a single pecan out of the jar and carefully placed it on his tongue before closing the vault again.


	32. Up, Up, and Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The families converge on Oxford for Diana's birthday celebration.

Eloise hovered near Ysabeau as they waited in the private lounge at JFK airport for the rest of the family to arrive. She didn’t know who she was most nervous about seeing. She’d behaved so badly when she’d last seen her sister but she hadn’t been at her best when Baldwin had left the Bishop house either.

And she’d killed someone since then. 

She wondered if she still smelled of skunk.

Two days ago, a letter and a new phone had arrived from Baldwin. Since then, they’d been texting and sexting like teenagers. They hadn’t spoken though. Neither of them wanted their words overheard by her guardians. 

Ysabeau reached out and gently adjusted the collar of her Dior blouse. Shopping the de Claremont way had been a revelation. She’d channelled her inner Julia Roberts as they hit the big designer stores. She had had no trouble at all recognizing the items that Baldwin had purchased for her to wear after their date in Manhattan. She’d been so proud of her extravagant eighty-dollar dress. But Baldwin had spent more than that just on the scarf. In fact, the top she’d ruined by throwing up on it was now on special for a mere two thousand dollars.

Ysabeau had insisted on purchasing her a wardrobe that would see her through the next few weeks in Europe. She’d never in her life required a full length ballgown but now had four which was apparently the minimum for de Clermont women to travel with.

“Eloise.” Baldwin whispered as he arrived. She spun to face him and almost ploughed Miriam down as she raced to him. Uncaring of who was watching, Baldwin pulled her close, breathed in her scent and then kissed her.

“Move, Baldwin.” Sarah’s voice finally cut through the passion of the kiss. Baldwin lifted his head and then merely turned away, carrying Eloise with him to the side. The rest of the Madison contingent filed in behind Sarah. Vivian throwing her sister a worried look but not approaching. Ysabeau expertly assumed the mantle of hostess to give Baldwin and Eloise a few moments to reconnect.

“I’ve run out of pecans.” He told her. “I’d run out of patience waiting to see you again too.”

“I can’t believe we can be together again!”

“I should have put us on a private flight, to hell with the others.” Eloise laughed and kissed him lightly. 

“I’ve missed you. But now that we are together, I guess that means no more love letters?”

“No, there’ll be many more, my love. I found it a pleasing way to spend the hours when we were parted.” Baldwin assured her. “Come, introduce me to your sister.”

Chris and Jeanette were the last to arrive. They were loaded down with all of Jeanette’s earthly possessions and several cases of blood samples. It had taken both Matthew and Baldwin’s considerable clout to expedite all of the necessary paperwork but they’d managed. 

An hour later, everyone was settled into the jet. Baldwin had kissed Eloise’s forehead and urged her to sit with her sister for the beginning of the flight, claiming he had a bit of business left to address with Jeanette, Chris, and Miriam.

The four of them moved to the private office towards the back of the plane. “You have already signed your university contract.” Baldwin told Jeanette. “But given the sensitivity of this project and the unique constraints, the de Clermonts will be supplementing your salary. Significantly.”

“That isn’t necessary.” Jeanette said, shocked.

“It is. There can be no misunderstanding. You will be employed by, and answerable to, the de Clermonts.” Baldwin didn’t mince words. “There will be long term implications for your career progression and prospects as a scientist. But you will, in exchange, enjoy the benefits of being protected by the de Clermonts and well compensated for your sacrifices.” Baldwin handed her the contract. Her de Claremont stipend was fully ten times her university salary and included a house and personal security detail.

“This is a very generous offer.” She answered, folding the contract without signing it. “However, I don’t sign contracts without getting a lawyer to review the terms.” Baldwin nodded, impressed. Most people were blinded by such generous terms and rarely requested the time to perform due diligence. Jeanette had passed this first test, as Matthew had guessed she would.

“Very well. As soon as you arrive in Oxford, contact a solicitor specialising in employment law and have them review it. They can send me the bill.” Baldwin extended a business card. “Either way, your position at the University is assured.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to return to my life mate. And remember that nothing about the recent findings is to be discussed during this flight.”

Returning to main cabin, Baldwin squeezed in beside Eloise. He would have been content just to hold her and breathe in her scent forever but Eloise was determined to torture him by drawing patterns on the inside of his knee with her fingers. It took Baldwin much too long to realise that she was writing messages to him.

Very sexy messages.

Putting his arm around her shoulder, he began tapping out his answers in morse code while her sister and brother-in-law bored them into a daze.

Eloise was surprised when the landed. Instead of a coach as she’d expected, Baldwin had arranged for cars to take them in small groups. “I’m taking you to Matthew’s Old Lodge.” He told her. “We’ll meet up with the rest of the family tomorrow but they’ll need to entertain themselves for tonight.” Eloise couldn’t bid her family good-bye fast enough. 

“How long is the drive?”

“Short. We’re only going to a helipad.” Baldwin told her. “I wasn’t spending an hour and a half in a car with you without being able to touch you.”

Matthew’s Old Lodge, it turned out, was a spectacular property nestled in large gardens near Blenheim Palace. As soon as they were in the house, Baldwin pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “God, I’ve missed you!” Eloise expected him to sweep her up to a bedroom or maybe even make love to her against the wall or on the floor but he didn’t.

Instead, he took a step back, breathed deeply, and reached for her hand to lead her back out into the garden. “Tell me about our time apart. Anything you left out of your letters that you would like to share.” Bewildered, Eloise started talking. At first, it felt awkward but slowly, it became easier. She told him about her hunting misadventures, and Miriam’s Vampire 101 crash course, the extensive repairs that would be necessary in Sarah’s house, and how much she had enjoyed their letters. 

“And I thought about your question.” She said finally. In his last letter, Baldwin had asked her to take their remaining time apart to carefully consider if she wanted the life that she would have as his mate. “I asked Ysabeau what it was like being a consort to the head of the de Claremont family. And then I thought about you. Just you, and me. What it was like when we danced in Venice or how you reacted when I needed you, or how honest you were in your letters. I thought about how it feels when we are apart. And I realised that it isn’t about blood, or immortality, or anything else. Now that I know I could manage well enough on my own for centuries, I don’t want to spend a single day of that time away from you.” Baldwin nodded and knelt.

“Eloise, I asked you if you would be my mate when you were drugged and in pain. I ask you now if you will accept me as your mate, from this day forward.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a modest looking ring with a simple emerald setting. “This ring is all that I have left of my birth family. It was my mother’s. With it, I offer you all of my past, present, and future.”

“I accept, with joy.” Eloise whispered. Standing, he kissed her again. 

“It will be two weeks before we can formally be mated and even longer before we can be married but those are ceremonies for others. This moment is ours.”

“Then can we please make love now before I burst into flames?” Eloise asked. Baldwin nodded a moment before sweeping her in his arms and racing at vampire speed into the house and up to a bedroom.

Baldwin or Matthew had arranged to book out an entire floor of the Rudolf Hotel. The Harrison and de Clermont entourage settled in while Chris and Miriam accompanied Jeanette straight to the lab as Matthew had requested.

They found Gallowglass in the park outside, playing with the twins. “Matthew doesn’t want them in the lab for now.” He explained. “But Diana is helping Jackie prepare for his interview tomorrow so someone had to take the tykes out of the house.”

“Give me my goddaughter before you drop her.” Miriam ordered, plucking the child out of his arms. Phillip immediately reached out to Jeanette.

“Singy!” Dutifully, Jeanette started singing Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink, complete with gestures. It was the only song she could think of but Gallowglass and Miriam just watched her performance in disbelief.

Pulling out her phone, Miriam dialled Matthew’s number.

“We’re with Gallowglass. Have you secured the blood samples we brought or should we leave your miniatures out here?

“The blood is stored. You can all come up.” Matthew told her. 

Jeanette’s orientation of Matthew’s lab was quick. “Miriam will give you a more thorough orientation after you get properly settled in your new home.” Matthew told her. “And you’ll need to get your university ID made. Gallowglass will do a security orientation. All that can wait until Monday though. Tomorrow is Diana’s birthday and we’d love for you to join the celebration. It’ll be later in the day, though. Our son has an admission interview in the morning.”

“Do you want me to watch the munchkins?” Gallowglass offered.

“No, your protection detail starts now. Besides, the grannies are in town. My life won’t be worth much if I leave their grandchildren in someone else’s care when they are near. I’m heading over to their hotel now to collect them and they’ll stay with the children tomorrow so that Diana and I can be nearby when Jack finishes his interview. We’ll take him out to lunch.” Matthew said. “Chris, Marcus and Phoebe will come by later to pick up you up for a night of Oxford carousing.”

“Sing-y.” Rebecca said again. Jeanette laughed and blushed.

“Sorry, they wanted me to sing so I did. I guess that’s my new _real_ job.” Jeanette explained to Matthew.

“X-Box.” Chris said, encouraging the children to maintain the nickname he’d bestowed.

“Sing-y.” Philip insisted.

“Come on, I’ll take them to their grannies. I don’t know about Sarah, but _maman_ can certainly sing to them.”

Diana poured herself and Jack each a glass of wine. “You’re as prepared as anyone could be for this, Jack. Just try to relax and be yourself.”

“I’d rather be dad.” He muttered. 

“Sweetheart, your dad has his moments of self-doubt too.” Diana told him. “We all do.”

“Yeah, but you’re both so good at everything.”

“No, we’re not. We just have more experience doing certain things, especially academics. And we’ve both been on the both sides of the admission process.”

“But you always know what to do. I’m always worried that I’ll do something wrong, or embarrass you, or bring disgrace to the entire lineage.”

“Jack, do you really think that you could possibly cause more mischief or mayhem than Matthew, Baldwin, and even Louisa did? Even if you dedicated every day to nothing else, it would take centuries for you to catch up to their troublemaking exploits!” Jack smiled.

“I wonder what dad was like when he was my age.”

“Twenty-one… or five hundred?” Diana asked.

“Both.”

“Well, from what Ysabeau told me, he was an apprentice carpenter when he was that age. So not unlike what you’ll be doing: learning about your craft. And a thousand years ago,” Diana paused, knowing that there were strong prohibitions in the vampire world about sharing the stories of others. “A thousand years ago, your father was in Jerusalem. He still struggles with the consequences of decisions he made then.”

“Eleanor. And Benjamin.” Jack said quietly. 

“Yes. The point is, Jack, that we can’t always see how we are bound to others or what a difference we make.”

“You can. You see the threads of the universe and you’re the Book of Life now.”

“I do. But that’s not enough, or too much at times. I can tell you this, though. Rebecca and Philip may have ended up with us, and us with them, through genetic recombination. But we chose you, and you chose us. You are loved, Jack. Not for any reason beyond who you are. So tomorrow, no matter what happens in the interview, I want you to hold on to that knowledge. No parents could be prouder of their son than we are of you, no matter what.” Ruffling his hair, she leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Now, come on. Help me get dinner and the table ready. Your dad will be here with the grannies any minute.”


	33. Someone's Gotta Give

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baldwin and Eloise can finally talk.

Once upstairs, Baldwin had veered towards one of the guest bedrooms. Though he hadn’t visited often, over the centuries he’d been here often enough that it felt comfortable, familiar, and permanent. Matthew wouldn’t part with the Old Lodge after so long. Making love to Eloise for the first time, in a place they would forever be able to return to, felt right.

Lowering Eloise’s feet to the floor, he reached up to trace the line of her jaw. She was so beautiful. He’d taken thousands of women to his bed over the centuries. They’d ranged in age from twenty-one to a particularly memorable eighty-one-year-old Soviet gymnast that had left him feeling sore the next day.

Most vampires were turned in the prime of life. It was in your twenties and thirties that you went out looking for adventure, got yourself killed, and if, you were lucky, were resurrected by a passing vampire. Generally speaking, if you survived to your forties or fifties, you had gotten smarter. You stayed home where it was safe.

Very few warmbloods became vampires later in life. Aging fascinated Baldwin. He loved how time was marked into flesh. Eloise had laugh lines in the corners of her eyes. Her body was softer and rounder than it might have been some years ago. 

When Baldwin seemed content to do nothing beyond stare at her, Eloise decided to move things along. If she just let him stand there, she was going to need a burlap bag to hide in. She really didn’t want to give him enough time to notice all her imperfections. Vampire blood had done wonders for her joints, strength, and flexibility but it hadn’t been enough to make her look twenty-two again. There was some sagging that wouldn’t bear scrutiny. And a few other imperfections. 

There was something very wicked about taking up with a man who was in his early thirties; or who at least appeared to be. It made her feel a bit long in the tooth to look too old for a vampire who was thousands of years old. She desperately wished that she could be much more casual about sex than she actually was.

Feeling self-conscious under his stare, Eloise looked away. Baldwin let out a low growl when she did and her eyes flickered back to him. He looked pleased. Confused, Eloise took a step back and he followed her.

“You’re nervous. Why?”

“You can tell that from my scent?”

“Yes. And your body language. Tell me, why?” Clearly, Baldwin was not a man given to patience when waiting for answers.

“It’s been a long time, Baldwin. Since I...” She looked for the words. “Since I’ve been intimate with anyone.” Walking them over to a plush chair near the window, he sat down and tugged her onto his lap so that her back rested against one arm rest and her legs draped over the other.

“We have all the time in the world, my love. I will not do anything that makes you uncomfortable or nervous. For now, we can just talk, and touch.” With one hand he massaged her neck and with the other, he stroked her leg. It was bliss after their flight. “Ask me anything you want an answer to.” He invited. Eloise had one question. Something that Ysabeau had refused to answer and Eloise had not wanted to put to paper to ask him before they were together.

“What do you need from a mate, Baldwin?”

“I didn’t realise you were such a brave little thing.” He told her.

“I’m 5’9. Or I was before you turned me. I might be even taller now. Hardly little.”

“You are to me. Alright, I’ll reward your courage in being so direct. I need you. I need how you make me feel. The stories you tell me, your principles. Everything I’ve discovered about you satisfies a hunger I didn’t even know I had.”

“But?”

“But, I am the head of the de Claremonts. I have immense responsibilities to our family but that also creates risk. I need to know you are safe.”

“I’ve taken care of myself so far.”

“Until now, you lived in the world of warm-bloods. That is a world of laws for the most part. But the world of vampires is different. True danger lurks, held back only by the willingness of each head of family to destroy any threat. I am not Edward VIII, able to simply abdicate my responsibilities to spend eternity pleasing you. And really, I wouldn’t want to. No more than I want you to spend your every waking moment trying to please me.”

“Then we agree.” Eloise said briskly. Baldwin caught her chin and turned her head so that she faced him properly.

“I am the head of the de Claremonts.” He repeated. “I will be until the day I die. My first responsibility, as the head of your vampire clan, as your maker, and as your mate is to protect you. I will kill anyone who is a danger to you. But if you become a danger to yourself, I will do whatever I must to protect you.” Eloise resisted the urge to squirm. She would not show weakness, even to him. “I will give you as much freedom as I can, my love. But you must make up your mind now that when I do tell you to do something, you will do it.”

“I’ve met Ysabeau, Baldwin. And Diana and Phoebe. They seem to do as they please.”

“Within their mate’s indulgence.” Baldwin agreed. “My father has been dead these many years, but even Ysabeau accepted his authority. And if you watch carefully, you will see that Matthew and Marcus are ever vigilant with their mates and are not at all hesitant to issue commands when they feel it is necessary. Phoebe and Diana thrive under their mate’s loving care and I will do everything to ensure that you do as well.” Eloise’s lips tightened.

“We spoke of this in Venice and New York, before I ever asked you wanted to turn. Do you regret your choice now?”

“No.” Eloise admitted. “But you must understand. My whole life, I have made my own decisions. I don’t plan to stop now.”

“Obviously, those decisions were not reckless or you would not be here now. Is it your intention to seek out danger now?”

“No.”

“Then there will be no matter for conflict, my love. I ask that you trust me, and the greater knowledge I have of vampire life, to protect you from harm. I may, at times, convey my concerns in an indelicate way. I’m not given to flowery language. But I beg you to believe that any limits I place on you are necessary.”

“I won’t just blindly accept constraints, Baldwin.”

“And I will strive to use reason rather than authority. But ultimately, I am responsible for you in a way that has no equivalent in warm-blood society. There is no police or trial by jury in our world, my love. The only law for our family is mine and we must find a way to converge on what we both need.” Eloise took a deep breath. 

“This is a much darker conversation than I had expected. Maybe we could go back to talking about M*A*S*H?” 


	34. Eyes on the Prize, Gallowglass!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gallowglass does a bit of thinking.

When Jack heard Matthew’s car pull in to the drive, he raced out to greet his grandmothers and help to get the twins out of their car seats. The family made their way to the back garden where the table was already set. While the twins reconnected with their mother, Jack submitted with good grace to his grandmothers’ questions about his new plan and the interview the next day.

“Just come to the lab when you’re done, Jack.” Matthew said. “Your mom will be waiting with me and we can go out to lunch. There’s that new creature-friendly restaurant at the top of the Overgate. Creature Features I think it’s called. I’ve heard good things.” Another benefit of humans becoming aware of creatures was the explosion of businesses that now catered, literally or otherwise, to the creature market. Vampire restaurants were sprouting up everywhere.

“But won’t you need to get back to get ready for the party?”

“I’ll handle the last-minute preparations.” Sarah said.

“That shouldn’t be more than taking the foil off the trays the caterer is bringing over.” Matthew told her. “I invited Jeanette, by the way.” Matthew added casually. Diana blinked. If he’d invited Jeanette, then he had also invited Gallowglass.”

“Do you think they’ll come?” Ysabeau’s expression didn’t change, but Diana knew she had caught the plural.

Jeanette sat quietly, soaking in every detail of the night. She’d known Chris for a few years, of course. They’d been out a bunch of times for a team night out. Still, he was a sufficiently prominent scientist that even here, he was occasionally recognized. Marcus and Miriam had been working in the Clairmont lab for years so it wasn’t surprising that they ran into people they knew. No one seemed to know Phoebe but she certainly caught people’s attention. Marcus had resorted to draping an arm around his wife and occasionally growling when a flirty male drifted just a little bit too close. 

Jeanette’s new bodyguard was something entirely different. Jeanette had met him before, back when Matthew had been pitching-in in Chris’s lab. Gallowglass’s security detail then had been Diana. She hadn’t been able to figure out how he managed to be charming and ooze fun and yet also radiate the message that no one other than Matthew would be permitted within reaching distance. A special dispensation apparently existed for Chris but otherwise, they’d all understood the message.

Having that same singular vigilance focused on her was strange. She’d never been the kind of person to go out partying, even when she was a student. She was more of an introvert who enjoyed playing with data than making casual connections. The ridiculous result of that was that she was now twenty-seven and still a virgin. Even if she’d wanted to dabble in casual sex, explaining that detail would be incredibly awkward, so she just didn’t.

But if she ever did consider it, Gallowglass de Clermont would be at the top of her list. The man was a walking pheromone. He ticked every box on her mental Mr Right list. He was big and funny. It was obvious that everyone who knew him thought the world of him but he hadn’t let that go to his head.

After the lab, he’d taken her to the house that had been arranged for her. It was a bit outside of the city in a little village, on a street called Weirs Lane. He’d explained that they were just a short drive away from Diana and Matthew’s house and that the name of the street had probably amused Matthew.

She loved her new home though. It was bright and cheerful, with a small private garden that she’d really enjoy doing up next spring. There’d been a little bit of discussion about room allocation. She’d chosen the smallest of the bedrooms to sleep in and the slightly larger one next door as a home office and guest room. That left the master suite in the converted loft for Gallowglass to use as a suite. He had not even pretended to consider the idea for a second. She would use the top floor suite. He explained that he was fine using the smaller downstairs bedroom whenever he needed to sleep but there was no way she was sleeping between him and the main door of the house.

When she’d pointed out that they would never be able to fit a super-king-sized bed into the small room and that was the minimum of what he would need given his height, he’d retorted that he didn’t need one. A carpeted floor was a damn-sight more comfortable than some places he’d slept. They’d finally compromised on him using the larger of the two first floor rooms since no one would be able to climb the stairs to the loft without hearing them. 

Jeanette looked forward to hearing his, no doubt, cogent arguments about her midnight ice cream habit. She’d always had at least one roommate, and some of them had been men. She’d never lived with a vampire though. Chris’s fingers appeared in front of her face and snapped. “Earth to Xbox.” He said loudly over the noise of the pub. 

“Sorry. I was thinking.” 

“This is not a thinking kind of night, Xbox. I was asking you how you’re enjoying your first evening out in Oxford.”

“It’s great.” She admitted. Beside her, Gallowglass’s nostrils flared slightly.

“You’re tired.” He told her. “And most likely jet-lagged. Come on, I’ll take you home.” Just like that, Jeanette found herself outside on the street with the big vampire.

“I can get a cab back, Gallowglass. You should stay and enjoy the night.” He ignored her and quickly guided her to the car.

It was not a long distance but there was a surprising amount of traffic that slowed them down. The quiet roar of the car and the smoothness of the drive conspired against her and she was asleep in a moment.

Gallowglass looked down at Jeanette. He didn’t remember the last time a human had trusted him so instinctively. He couldn’t believe he’d been able to park the car, lift her out, and carry her up two flights of stairs to her bed without her waking up. In fact, all she’d done was curl up closer to him, breathe deep and trust him. She hadn’t woken up when he slipped her leather loafers off of her feet or pulled the covers over her in a blanket sandwich.

Remembering the car, he sped down the stairs to close the doors and lock it up. He did a perimeter check of the garden and then walked through the house to make sure there was nothing unexpected. It would take a little while for the lingering scents of the previous residents to dissipate but that wouldn’t be a problem. He still wanted to change the locks on all the doors. Maybe he’d do that while Jeanette was unpacking in coming days.

First, he had to get through seeing Diana again. He hadn’t seen his Auntie since Chelm, on purpose. He’d met up with Matthew a few times, but always alone. They’d even managed to go hunting, and drinking, a few times in the last year. Matthew had been his favourite relative and was the only person that he could imagine ceding the ground to when it came to Diana. 

Rubbing his chest where the latest siren image hid, he frowned. The last time he’d gotten inked, he had not included Corra’s image. He missed the annoying firedrake but if Diana had let her go, so could he. He’d also decided that it was time to stop carrying the image of Diana on his skin. He’d had centuries when the identity of his magical mermaid was his own secret. For centuries, he’d kept her close to her heart even as he looked out for Matthew as he’d promised her.

Now they were all in the same time and things were different. Having her likeness etched into his skin had been a talisman, reassuring her that she would be here in the present if he just waited long enough. She was here, and now, and Matthew’s. He’d need to find something else to inspire his ink. He certainly could not discharge his duties as godfather if he needed to hide from his feelings forever.


	35. Knockin' on Heaven's Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miriam invites Chris home for a nightcap.

The house on Turn Again Lane was hidden away in a tiny enclave near the heart of Oxford that had escaped rebuilding. Miriam unlocked the front door and led him into a space that was nothing like what he expected. His tough, in-your-face lab manager apparently had a feminine side and a passion for Art Deco and the Craftsman style. 

Chris smiled as he took in the vase with a bouquet of fresh peonies on the mantle and the unmistakeable style of the Glasgow School of Art. Long rectangles and wide ovals gave a uniformity to the space while enormous stylised florals gave it a whimsical feel that he had not expected. 

Miriam stood back, arms crossed, waiting for him to finish his perusal. “I like it. It works.” He finally said. Nodding, she uncrossed her arms. “Wine?” She offered, leading him towards the kitchen. She’d invited him back to her place for a nightcap and a catch-up about everything that had been going on in the lab while she’d been in Madison. 

“Sure.” Chris accepted the glass and looked around the kitchen. This room was done up in a more Art Nouveau – Steampunk fusion. It was all stained glass, copper, and polished wood. It would be completely impractical for a kitchen that was actually used to cook in but it was a beautiful space to sip a drink in and chat.

“I guess I should head back to my hotel.” Chris finally said after the second glass of wine.

“No, you shouldn’t.” Miriam whispered, leaning in slowly. Chris blinked. She’d kept him guessing about whether or not she was into him for months. They’d gone out for dinner a bunch of times, usually two or three times a week but they were ambiguous outings. He wasn’t sure if they were dates or just a chance to argue lab procedures and scientific scholarship.

Miriam’s lips were soft and questioning, the tip of her tongue probing gently for admittance. Cautioning himself to take it easy, he deepened the kiss, his hand sliding to the back of her neck. He’d never found the right nickname for her but he’d considered a few. Porcupine and Dynamite had featured high in his thoughts of the bristly and dangerous vampire female. Now, with the smell of her floral perfume in his nose and the velvety softness of her skin under his fingers, he thought Peony would be more appropriate. Tugging gently, he guided her into his lap.

She was a tiny little thing. He liked that. But if she’d been human, he would have worried about hurting her if he got carried away. He was a big guy who kept fit and was always aiming to be stronger. He wasn’t any match for a vampire, though. And this one had gotten under his skin something fierce. Judging from how she was responding to him, he’d gotten under hers too.

When they finally came up for air, Chris smiled down at her. “Does that mean that shop talk is over for tonight?”

“Yes.” Miriam got to her feet. “Come on, I’m not jumping you in the kitchen.”

“Too unhygienic for my lab manager?”

“Too uncomfortable. And I’ve been imagining you in my bed for too long.”

Like the rest of the house, Miriam’s bedroom was feminine and floral without being fussy. She pushed Chris down onto the bed and straddled his hips, kissing him again. His hands slid under the hem of her shirt, skimming over the skin of her waist and up over her back. Pulling away, she yanked her shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor before reaching for his shirt. Chris shook his head. If they were skin-to-skin, this would be over way too fast. That wasn’t what he had in mind. Clasping her wrists in his hands, he leaned forward and caught her lace-cupped breast in his mouth, letting her feel his breath through the fabric. Her nipple responded immediately.

Growling, Miriam pressed her breast more firmly, shivering when he stabbed at her nipple with his tongue. Though she didn’t fight his hold on her wrists, she made her impatience known by pushing him back towards the mattress. 

Determined, Chris resisted her, engaging his abs to keep from falling back. When she stopped trying to direct him, he wrapped his arms around her waist and moved them so that they were both laying on the bed, with him on top. The smell of flowers was increasing and Chris suddenly needed to find all the pulse-points where she’d applied it. He kissed her then moved in a slow exploration. When he licked at a spot just below her ear, his sexy little vampire started trembling when he unclasped her bra and flicked his thumbs over her nipples before settling his mouth over her left breast. When he gently squeezed her nipple between his teeth, Miriam lost patience. In an instant, she’d moved them again. Chris’s polo shirt was shredded in an instant and he found himself on his back, on the floor. 

“I’m done waiting.” Miriam told him, her fingers on the button of his jeans. Chris had to agree. There was no time left for niceties. They were both naked so fast that he wasn’t even sure which one of them had done the stripping.

Despite Miriam’s intention to use the bed, Chris lost patience. She was flexible and when he shifted her ankles to her shoulders, she happily hooked her feet around the back of his head, pulling him closer to her mouth for a kiss even as he slid into her. She reached over her head to brace herself against the doorjamb as they bounced together on the floor. Freed from that responsibility, Chris returned his attention to her breasts. With flawless instincts, he licked a path along her heart vein, tumbling Miriam into orgasm.

Chris muffled his shout against her neck as Miriam’s body clenched on him with vampire strength. No human male could resist that kind of stimulation.

When he drifted back into consciousness, Miriam was playing with the hair at the base of his skull and rubbing her cheek against his temple. “Welcome back.” She said softly when he propped himself up on his elbows.

“Damn, woman. You’re something else.”

“So are you.” Miriam said softly. “But you’ll be no use to me at all if you don’t get some sleep.” She could smell his exhaustion. He’d worked a full day the day before, been in a plane all night, and hadn’t had a moment of rest since. Chris nodded and yawned, moving to his feet. He reached down to pull her up and though she didn’t need it, she accepted his help.

Pulling back the covers, he waved her into the bed first. When he climbed in behind her, he adjusted their position so that he was spooning her. Miriam snuggled closer and they both fell asleep.


	36. Sometimes Fate Just Bitch-Slaps You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has his interview and Matthew's lab protocols get shaken up.

“Here, let me.” Matthew ordered, swatting away Jack’s hands from the tie. He made a quick knot and adjusted it and the collar before handing Jack his suit jacket. “Great. You’re as ready as you’ll ever be, Jack. And you’ll do fine. Remember, most of the questions will be about your portfolio and your admission essay. That’s all stuff you know.” Jack nodded. “Come on, let’s go help your mom get the twins ready. I was going to drop you off first but your grannies were pretty insistent about wishing you luck, in person, before your interview. You’ll just have to put up with the fussing.”

“Not that it’s only your grandmothers who fuss over you.” Diana said, appearing with the twins. Handing them off to their father, she gave Jack a hug. “I’m so proud of you, Jack. And I know you’ll just blow them away.”

“Mom.” He groaned, fooling no one as he protested his Diana’s praise. The family piled into the car. Matthew and Diana secured the twins into their car seats while Jack loaded the metric tonne of necessary stuff that was a requirement for such excursions.

Diana bit her lip to control the smile as Matthew drove in the excessively defensive manner he always used when his family was in a motor vehicle. She remembered how different it had been when he’d taken her to the Old Lodge that first time, before either of them had even admitted how they felt about each other. Then he’d been all smooth skill and maximum allowable speed. Not anymore.

He dropped Diana, Jack, and the twins in front of the Randolf Hotel. It was close enough to his lab that he parked in his usual place and walked back. He arrived just as Ysabeau and Sarah reached the lobby. They fussed over their grandchildren. “You’ll do great, Jack. I know you will.” Sarah told him.

“Of course, he will.” Ysabeau sniffed. “He is a Bishop-Clairmont. Oxford will be lucky to have you.” Bending down to kiss each of the twins in their stroller, Matthew’s gaze was caught by the slight shift in Diana’s hand. It was a gesture she’d gotten good at concealing but he recognized it. Diana was quietly weaving a spell. “Off you go, now. We’ll see you this afternoon.” With a last admonishment to the twins, and grannies, to behave; Matthew, Diana, and Jack headed towards Broad Street.

Once Jack had moved out of sight of his parents, Matthew pulled Diana close for a kiss. “Who were you bewitching back there?” He asked, delighting in her immediate blush.

“You saw that?”

“Smelled it too.” He confirmed.

“I thought I was being subtle.” She muttered. “I was just adding a bit of weight to the threads of encouragement around Jack.” Matthew nodded. 

They stopped in at Blackwell’s Art Bookstore so Diana could Jack a new book. Matthew waited for his wife patiently while she browsed. Book gifts were a ritual between the two of them. Diana had bought Jack his first book in 1590 and had kept him supplied since he’d been returned to them. On the first Mothering Sunday after they’d been reunited, Jack had gifted Diana with a newly published book about the history of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and a tradition had been born. Jack and Diana used books to tangibly express their feelings. 

When they arrived at the lab, Miriam and Chris were already there. Matthew froze as he hit a wall of their mated scent so strong that he almost bounced back. Diana launched herself at Chris for a hug and the two vampires tensed. Matthew had learned to accept that his wife was a hugger. She had agreed to a limited list of hug-ees but Chris was on the list. Miriam knew it but until now, she’d had no claim on Diana’s warm-blooded best friend. Matthew gently tugged Diana away from Chris.

“What the hell is that mess in the fridge, Matthew?” Miriam demanded. “I turn my back for a second and I come back to a complete break down of our lab protocols. Protocols _you_ set, I might add.” Matthew grimaced.

“Right, sorry. Gallowglass was in the other day and since his samples were destroyed by Philip, I took a fresh sample.”

“And didn’t label them before putting them in the fridge.” Miriam growled.

“The twins were here and they took too much interest in the samples so I just put them away and planned to label them later.”

“I threw them out.” Miriam informed him. “They weren’t labelled so they went.” 

“You are such a hard-ass.” Chris told her.

“You would know.” Miriam retorted. Matthew goggled at his long-time friend. He’d known her for centuries and he hadn’t heard her make innuendos like this since Bertrand had been alive. He was grateful to hear the lab door open and see Gallowglass and Jeanette arrive. Like Matthew, Gallowglass detected Miriam and Chris’s mixed scent from across the room. Also like Matthew, he knew better than to make any comment though they did exchange a disbelieving look at this new development.

“Jeanette, I wasn’t expecting you today.” Matthew told his new team member. She held up a sheaf of folded papers. “I was able to see a solicitor this morning who reviewed the contract Baldwin gave me. I’ve signed it and thought I’d bring it over now since Hugh said that you’d be here this morning.”

“Hugh?” Matthew repeated.

“Gallowglass?” Jeanette clarified, surprised that Matthew didn’t know his own cousin’s name. Gallowglass raised an eyebrow, daring any of them to comment further on this unprecedented use of his father’s name. Matthew wondered what the hell they were putting in the water supply that was rewiring every vampire’s brain.

Beside him, Diana was frozen in place. She hadn’t seen Gallowglass in nearly two years and she missed him terribly. Knowing how he felt about her, she was hesitant to make seeing her more difficult than it might already be. Gallowglass was a de Claremont though, with the family knack for self-torture. Opening his arms, he winked at Diana. “Hullo, Auntie.” Diana immediately launched herself at Gallowglass for a bear hug.

“Gallowglass, we need a new sample. And Jeanette, since you’re here, I can show you how to take a blood sample. It’s a skill you’ll need here.” Miriam announced briskly. Gallowglass duly took a seat on a stool and offered his arm. Miriam brought two collection kits to the bench and proceeded to demonstrate how to take a blood sample. With a dirty look at Matthew for his as-yet-unforgiven-crime of having put two vials of unlabelled blood in the fridge, she explained what information needed to be included. “Your turn.” She said, taking the needle out of Gallowglass’s arm.

“Matthew, do you see what I see?” Chris breathed.

“I do.” Matthew agreed, stepping closer. Miriam frowned and looked down at Gallowglass’s arm, then blinked in surprise. Instead of purling on his skin like a normal drop, the blood had stretched slightly to track towards his hand.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you, this is my first time doing this.” Jeanette whispered.

“You’re fine, lass. I have tough vampire skin.” Gallowglass encouraged, pumping his fist to make the veins easier to see. She wiped his arm with an alcohol wipe and then cleaned the smear of blood from Miriam’s efforts. Her nerves were obvious but she dutifully slid the needle into his vein. Blood immediately squirted around the needle and splashed her hand.

“Christ!” Matthew said, leaping forward to clamp a dressing over the cut and remove the needle.

“What did I do wrong?” Jeanette squeaked, looking at Miriam. “Did I hit an artery?”

“No. You didn’t.” Matthew assured her. 

“But I think we need a sample of your blood too.” Chris announced. Matthew looked to Gallowglass for permission. Miriam handed Matthew a fresh collection kit and Gallowglass stood up, urging Jeanette onto the seat. Standing behind her, he let her use his chest as a backrest while Matthew took her blood. When he put the vials down on the bench, they immediately rolled towards Gallowglass’s samples. 

“So, we have another pair.” Chris whispered. Matthew repeated the demonstration that Chris had shown him with Baldwin and Eloise’s blood just a few weeks earlier.

“And again, with someone in the de Clermont line.” Matthew said. “So, we need to figure out if this is unique to that blood line or if there are other families that have it too.

“Can someone explain what all this means?” Gallowglass demanded.

“We need to analyse both of your samples, to see what we can understand from the DNA. But we’ve just seen your blood literally leap out of your vein to get to Jeanette which is amazing on its own.”

“Maybe I just missed the vein? Arterial blood is under pressure, isn’t it?” Jeanette asked, considering other possibilities.

“Except you did hit the nerve, vampire blood pressure is far too low to shoot blood like that, and not a single drop ended up on your shirt. Look, blood hit your skin and spread out but it didn’t drift onto your clothes.” Without being in the loop about Baldwin’s recent mating experience, Jeanette still couldn’t understand what it all meant and a quick headshake from Gallowglass warned everyone to keep it that way. “For now, you should stick to Gallowglass like glue, at least until we figure this out.” Matthew told her.

“Well, I might as well label those samples and then you can show me where to store them.” Jeanette said to Miriam just as Jack arrived for his celebratory lunch. 


End file.
